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In a cricket-obsessed country such as india, there is little room left for other sportsmen to shine. And while huge sums of money are showered upon cricketers, stadiums and leagues, athletes of other fields often struggle to fund their own training and find good equipment, rarely given the recognition they deserve. But they don’t let this under-appreciation and lack of recognition stop them, they continue to power through every obstacle, working hard on their skills and training while juggling daily jobs to make ends meet. Kanishka Mukherji captures the struggles of one such individual, a boxer, in his photo-narrative ‘The Un-Cinderella Man.’
Currently working at the State Bank of India, Mukherji earned a Masters in Marine Science and took to photography just three years ago with a point-and-shoot camera, and a few months later this hobby turned into a passion. “According to me, a photograph is a bridge between the subjects and the viewer. A photograph should compel the viewers to think and be one with the subject. Each photograph should tell a story and give a shake to the thought process of the viewers,” says Mukherji. “Life is a quintessential element of my photography because they say, ‘it is more important to click with people than to click the shutter.’”
‘The Un-Cinderella Man’ began in February 2015 when Mukherji came across the protagonist of his series after a casual encounter near his office. “The boys live in a house that is on my way to work. Almost every morning I would see them and slowly began to observe their regular activities, and soon enough I got the idea that I needed to represent their lives in my story and bring it in front of the world,” Mukherji tells us. “To me, photography is not only about representing the beauty of the world in pictures but I think it’s most important to tell untold stories through pictures. That’s why I selected this subject to make their story heard by the world.”
Through the series, we see a man’s transition from a labourer shoveling coal during the day to a focused and driven boxer by night. When he is in the ring, the outside world dissolves, all that remains is his opponent in front of him and the challenge to fight against all odds set up against him by society. He faces many trials and tribulations, but remains unfazed by them all. “Once during the shoot, I saw the brothers sharing a single plate of rice and vegetables for lunch. The food they get has never been enough for them but still they would always eat with such pleasure. It’s on this day that I learned one lesson--to be happy with whatever I’ve got,” recalls Mukherji.
“What I want to convey to viewers is that at any time of our day to day lives we may come across some talents who go unrecognized due to their circumstances. So, we should try to help them in any way we can, however small it may be, and make their lives better and enable them to gain the recognition they deserve,” states Mukherji. “India needs to overcome its hype over cricket and start recognizing other sports. The sports authority of India does provide few scholarship schemes for young players in India but what we really lack is awareness. There are opportunities but people don’t know about it, especially the section of people I work with. I have no idea about these government schemes and they are not educated enough to find out either. My appeal to the government is to increase awareness among all sections of society about the opportunities they can explore.”
Mukherji is right in his observation, it’s not just the men photographed in his series, but we constantly hear and read about countless individuals and underdogs, from all sections of society, who make a name for themselves without the help and support of the government and society as a whole. It isn’t easy, but we can’t imagine how hard it must be and in this regard work like this series by Mukherji sheds light on the reality of so many young Indians across the country who continue to follow their dreams and passions yet have to often make sacrifices just to earn a living. What can we as individuals do for such people? We read about them, write about them, but rarely do we see them, recognise them for their worth and give them their due respect; after seeing Mukherji’s work, a national newspaper reporter contacted him, and as Mukherji tells us, the story of these two young men was published in a national daily Sunday edition. The article drew in love and support from a few people who came forward with whatever help they could offer, and promised to help the boys in the future too.
All photographs in this post are copyrighted by Kanishka Mukherji, and have been published here with permission from the photographer. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
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