A still from Burqa Boxers

Of the many things you expect under a burqa, a boxer is the farthest guess. Burqa Boxers is a film by Alka Raghuram that traces the lives of three young Kolkata-based girls from conservative Muslim backgrounds, struggling to make it as professional boxers under the tutelage of one of India's first female coaches, Razia Shabnam. The stigma and struggles aren't difficult to fathom. It's much like knowing it rains during the monsoons. But knowing isn't the same as wading through streets flooded with arsenic water teeming with diseases, to make it to work on time every day. In other words, knowing isn't the same as experiencing it.