Father Dear Father:
Venus and Serena Williams are tennis legends, but whether they would have been able to reach those heights without the motivation and push given to them by their father, is open to speculation.
King Richards, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, is a feel-good story– that comes with six Oscar nominations– about Richard Williams, who did all it took to battle class and race barriers to allow the talent of his daughters to bloom. He was cocky, thick-skinned, manipulative and a little greedy when he twisted arms in the all-white tennis establishment—always with charm intact—to get the two girls a level playing field. It is pretty much a black American Dangal, minus the odious patriarchy. Here the will of the daughters is taken into account, and when one feels discriminated against, her father sits down and tells her just what he has envisaged for her. He is tough on those who stand in his way, with the girls he is fiercely supportive but also gentle. This is what distinguishes him from hordes of over ambitious parents who want their kids to achieve what they were unable to. Or maybe the film just manages to keep the darkness and exploitation out in favour of strong family values.
Richard (Will Smith, who won the Oscar for his performance), and his wife, Brandi (Aunjanue Ellis), are working class parents to five spirited daughters (three are from her previous marriage), who have so much confidence in Serena and Venus’s tennis-playing ability that they are determined to make them champions. Tough, when they had to play at public courts, without proper coaching, and put up with harassment from street hoods.
However, so strong was the man’s belief in his dream that he had a detailed manifesto written down, even before the girls were born. Which is why the story is worth telling, even amidst the glut of underdog-turned-winner plots that are an unvarying template for most sports films.
Like so many Blacks at the time, Richard grew up “running from the Klan” but with the resolve to give his family of “ghetto Cinderellas” a better life. Even though the arc of the story and its outcome is known Zach Baylin’s script gives it depth, and Richard’s brashness a sense of purpose.
Race is a running undercurrent, it was almost impossible for Black females (or even males) to break into the game, which, as Richard points out to eager sports agents waiting to snap them up, was the reason he chose it for his daughters—this very lack of diversity in the white, upper class game of tennis. He is aware and makes his daughters understand too, that their success is not just for themselves, but for the race. They would be inspiring other black women to get into sports.
The film does not get into other aspects of Richard Williams’s personal life, it focuses on his role as his daughters’ mentor and wish-fulfilling genie. Will Smith, with his stoop and sharp gaze gets the look of an obsessive, yet protective father just right, and gets full support from Aunjanue Ellis as the wife who shares his dream. Her scene with the neighbour who complains about abuse to the cops, shows her pride and sense of worth.
Sanniya Sidney and Demi Singleton as the Williams Sisters have worked on their game and body language in the few tennis sequences, but the film is not as much about the game as it is about how heroes and winners are made.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in on March 26, 2022)
