Toofaan Trailer Is As Much About Boxing As It Is About Supportive Partners

Toofaan trailer review: The first thing that strikes when watching the Toofaan trailer is the screen space its sole female lead occupies. Mrunal Thakur, in an essentially Farhan Akhtar-centred sports drama, consistently makes her presence felt throughout the three-minute-long trailer  of the Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra directorial.

The surprise to that end is courtesy a lack of women characters in Bollywood films that have themes - like sports and action - considered 'masculine' by mainstream audiences. The women in such films are almost always present as token mother figures or relegated to the sidelines as love interests or dancing props.

Remember the Radhe trailer and Disha Patani's pitiful appearance, playing into the 'dumb blonde' trope? I can't say whether or not the actual film rectified that because I spared myself of it.

Toofaan Trailer Review: Love That Drives Dreams

Ajju (Akhtar) is a small-time crook from Dongri who lands solid punches on his adversaries, a skill that several bloody fights later, starts him on his journey to becoming Aziz Ali, a national-level boxing champion. Supporting and pushing him from behind, at all times, is his partner Pooja (Thakur).

Their love arc runs parallel to the sports one, but in lesser measure, since the latter is the primary theme of Toofaan. But the treatment it gets is far less hackneyed than Mehra and Akhtar's first sports collaboration, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. 

Sonam Kapoor's Biro in the 2013 film was limited to that of a lost love interest for whom Milkha went from a nobody to a national athlete. That story was derived from real-life, but Toofaan it seems follows a similar formula.

And therefore, Thakur's character as Pooja runs the exact same risks, a character fulfilling the 'behind every successful man is a woman' myth, that is often more sexist than empowering. However, her strong place in the Toofaan trailer visibly goes beyond that stereotype. A doctor, she has her own voice and knows to stand beside her partner, alerting him to his strengths.

Toofaan tries to diverge from the blueprint of the sugary woman character in a measly supporting role in films about sportsmen. How far it does real justice to the lead remains to be seen.

Watch Toofaan trailer ">here: