Okay, to Will’s Williams’ movie now

Speaking of gender payparity if it wasnrsquot for Leander Paes proudly pointing it out at a media summit recently it wouldnrsquot 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 paygap was zero across athletics tooHerersquos 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 1973It took Wimbledon 34 years to catch up and pay equal in 2007 Until then their argument to hold back was that TV ratings for menrsquos events were higher Indeed ladies play a bestofthree setsrsquo match while guys are up for the longer bestoffiveStill tennis has reputably the lowest gender paygap in sport Especially when you consider that the only woman to make it to the worldrsquos 100 highest paid athletes in 2019 Forbesrsquo list was Serena Williams Only other female athlete in the 2021 list was also a tennis star Naomi Osaka Serena remainsWhich is a relief when you closely watch the story of the Williams sisters Serena and Venusmdash primarily through the lens of their father Richard in the Oscarwinning Reinaldo Greenrsquos film King Richard at a theatre near youWill Smith slaps Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Oscars PicAFPAll that Richard cares for is the money hersquos bet his childrenrsquos future on which is wholly linked to his ownfamilyrsquos Besides that eye on the prize being in the ldquochampion raising businessrdquo Richard can see that tennis is primarily a rich white personrsquos sportSo with his daughtersmdashSerena Demi Singleton Venus Saniyya Sidney two of five siblingsmdashRichard is convinced he has a story to tell ldquoGhettorellardquo something that presssponsors will latch on to for a laudable reasonBecause while Richard goes out of his way to access for his children the best coachturfclub helps to be in America you canrsquot take away the hardship the father must go through for all of thisDo you feel sorry for the Williams sisters growing up under the tyranny of tennis No more than for wrestling Phogat sisters in Dangal 2016 Itrsquos the same storyAs is Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathirsquos Break Point or the Olympic goldmedalist shooter Abhinav Bindrarsquos currently being filmed Individual determinationdoggedness of parents it appears principally drive excellence in individual sport You can see similar fathers fencing off the court in King RichardPleasant coincidence that Williams sisters equally love tennis and are inspired by their fatherrsquos motto ldquoIf you fail to plan you plan to failrdquo And while he keeps Venus from turning pro until shersquos 100 per cent ready Venus herself is clear ldquoI got the game to beat any player in the worldmdashI just gotta play itrdquoVenus is elder to Serena by a year Shersquos spotted for big things first Serena is ignored We donrsquot see this in the film but Serena in turn gets a roundtheclock 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 thoughmdashhersquos been through lsquountouchabilityrsquo apparently prevalent for blacks among whites in America onceThere 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 gunmdashalthough the film is a bit hazy on whether he actually did or notWho plays Richard Otherwise the blockbuster star Will Smith of course In a role custommade for Best Actor Oscar as most biopics areSmith wouldrsquove 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 lsquoyrsquo 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 awardsSmith looked exactly the same when he accepted the Oscar for King Richard The finest line in his speech being Denzel Washingtonrsquos ldquoAt your highest be careful Thatrsquos when the devil comes for yourdquo Looked like zerorestraint Smith needed help He made history for himself But wrote history for Oscars insteadHaving landed a slap on presenter Chris Rockrsquos face on live TV a little beforemdashfor Rockrsquos tasteless joke on Smithrsquos balding wife Rock was punching down alright And yet nobody expects a punch for a terrible punchline Surely everyone in the world had something going in their head when they watched this happenI thought of standup comedians the most vulnerable artistes in India and how a dick move like Smithrsquos could inspire similar morons in lesser clubsvenues As it is lsquowhatabouteryrsquo is the only refuge of hothead scumsBafflingly 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 wellpreserved 93year legacy Seriously Manikchand must take overMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper