Okay, to Will’s Williams’ movie now

A still from King Richard

Speaking of gender pay-parity, if it wasn't for Leander Paes proudly pointing it out at a media summit recently, it wouldn't have occurred to me that tennis is a rare sport, where men and women make equal money. Paes was saying this with Anju Bobby George next to him. Who, in turn, suggested that gender pay-gap was zero across athletics too.

Here's the catch though. Men earn over 30 per cent more than women in tennis. Paes was referring to tournament prize money alone. Which became equal for a Grand Slam, only with the US Open in 1973.

It took Wimbledon 34 years to catch up and pay equal (in 2007). Until then, their argument to hold back was that TV ratings for men's events were higher. Indeed, ladies play a best-of-three sets' match, while guys are up for the longer, best-of-five.

Still, tennis has reputably the lowest gender pay-gap in sport. Especially when you consider that the only woman to make it to the world's 100 highest paid athletes in 2019 Forbes' list was Serena Williams. Only other female athlete in the 2021 list was also a tennis star (Naomi Osaka). Serena remains.

Which is a relief, when you closely watch the story of the Williams sisters (Serena and Venus) - primarily through the lens of their father Richard, in the Oscar-winning, Reinaldo Green's film King Richard (at a theatre near you).

Will Smith slaps Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Oscars. Pic/AFP

All that Richard cares for is the money he's bet his children's future on, which is wholly linked to his own/family's. Besides that eye on the prize, being in the "champion raising business", Richard can see that tennis is primarily a rich, white person's sport.

So, with his daughters - Serena (Demi Singleton), Venus (Saniyya Sidney), two of five siblings - Richard is convinced he has a story to tell: "Ghettorella"; something that press/sponsors will latch on to, for a laudable reason.

Because while Richard goes out of his way to access for his children the best coach/turf/club (helps to be in America), you can't take away the hardship the father must go through for all of this.

Do you feel sorry for the Williams sisters, growing up under the tyranny of tennis? No more than for wrestling Phogat sisters in Dangal (2016). It's the same story.

As is Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi's (Break Point), or the Olympic gold-medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra's (currently being filmed). Individual determination/doggedness of parents, it appears, principally drive excellence in individual sport. You can see similar fathers fencing off the court in King Richard.

Pleasant coincidence that Williams sisters equally love tennis, and are inspired by their father's motto: "If you fail to plan; you plan to fail!" And while he keeps Venus from turning pro, until she's 100 per cent ready, Venus herself is clear, "I got the game to beat any player in the world - I just gotta play it!"

Venus is elder to Serena by a year. She's spotted for big things first. Serena is ignored. We don't see this in the film, but Serena, in turn, gets a round-the-clock champion to practise and up her game against. This is how younger siblings outclass older ones in (the same) sport, often.

You do feel sad for the dad though - he's been through ‘untouchability', apparently prevalent for blacks among whites in America once.

There is a touching restraint in the way he deals with black hoodlums, harassing his girls, when he takes them out for practice in a rough neighbourhood. At one point, he shoots down a jerk with a gun - although the film is a bit hazy on whether he actually did, or not.

Who plays Richard? Otherwise the blockbuster star, Will Smith, of course. In a role custom-made for Best Actor Oscar, as most biopics are.

Smith would've come closest to the statuette as Mohamed Ali in Ali (2001). The one he deserved the most for was Pursuit of Happyness (2006; wonder why the ‘y'). That cathartic finale, where he chokes simultaneously with joy and pain, having landed the sales job in Pursuit, is what films are made for (forget awards).

Smith looked exactly the same, when he accepted the Oscar for King Richard. The finest line in his speech being Denzel Washington's: "At your highest, be careful. That's when the devil comes for you." Looked like zero-restraint Smith needed help. He made history for himself. But wrote history for Oscars instead.

Having landed a slap on presenter Chris Rock's face, on live TV, a little before - for Rock's tasteless joke on Smith's balding wife. Rock was punching down, alright. And yet, nobody expects a punch for a terrible punch-line. Surely, everyone in the world had something going in their head, when they watched this happen.

I thought of stand-up comedians, the most vulnerable artistes in India, and how a dick move like Smith's could inspire similar morons in lesser clubs/venues. As it is, ‘whataboutery' is the only refuge of hot-head scums.

Bafflingly, no security was called at the Oscars venue. Smith sat there, heckling expletives further. With that single oversight for a scary precedent (on a global stage), the Academy Awards swiftly erased a well-preserved, 93-year legacy. Seriously, Manikchand must take over.

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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