Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 29th January, 2016
Time : 109 minutes
Director, Writer: Sudha Kongara; Music : Santhosh Narayanan
Starring : Madhavan, Ritika Singh, Nasser, Zakir Hussain, Mumtaz Sorcar
(simultaneously made and released in Tamil as Irudhi Suttru)
Sports movies usually suffer from a serious predictability issue. This one doubly so, somehow things happen too easily. The characters drawn are also pretty uni-dimensional – the good guys are always good and the baddies remain consistently bad, with no redeeming features. What keeps it going are some very good performances (Madhavan, Ritika, Zakir, Nasser) and the fact that the heart is in the right place – after all, as Madhavan points out early in the film, if the Sports Federations are removed from the equation, India will probably find champions in every galli-mohalla.
Madhavan is a disgruntled, ex-boxer, betrayed by his coach, Zakir Hussain, but the latter now calls the shots as National Head Coach for women boxing, with the former sullenly reporting to him. After yet another tiff, Madhavan is shunted out to Chennai, the worst ranking state for women boxers and there he meets the angry, fiery, spit-fire Ritika. She sells fish, is the younger sister of another boxer (Mumtaz) but Madhavan spots the talent in her and persuades her to train. First by giving her money, then other means. With both being permanently on simmer, the rest of the movie is mostly about either one boiling over on trivial matters – with Nasser, junior coach, trying to smooth things over. And then, when all finally seems to be going smoothly, others step in to spoil the fun, including but not the only one, Zakir Hussain…
If you’ve seen any sport film before, you’ll know how things are going to pan out – nothing really surprises. There are some fun moments in the first half, especially with the unorthodox style and celebrations of the gauche Ritika. The stars act well, doing the job assigned to them, making their characters believable. The songs are good but have an unmistakable southern feel to them. Things just fall in place for our underdogs too easily (too much is made of the lowly roots too often), too smoothly – in typical Hindi / Tamil film style.
To overcome the predictability, sports films usually need to have another, strong, parallel storyline to keep the viewers engaged – showing the Sports Federation as the bad guys though, is hardly novel, given our abysmal success rate in most sports. On a separate note, wouldn’t it be great if the Lodha Committee recommendations (to know more, click here) could be applied to all sporting bodies in the country ?
12 comments:
Lodha Committee has rightly nailed it... About time !
But why 'Saala' ? Falling short of titles ?
Your pen cannot run dry, you have so many ideas...
Madhavan has come a long way from 'Banegi Apni Baat' days... ... Winning is losing count of milestones, life isn't just about the big achievements, it is also about the little victories... to awaken your senses... That feeling which cannot be put into words - only experienced when all of the senses work together to create an emotion that is greater than the sum of its parts and when all your senses are satiated, you are at complete peace with yourself...
Gooooood morning....
No reviews till now ! How shall the week pass ?
If only people followed the prescribed safety guidelines....realisation by commuters that honking doesn't really serve a purpose, and for folks to practice lane-driving. We need to be more responsible road users - obey traffic laws and be compassionate towards accident victims... If each one of us does our bit on the road... Trust me, it gives a great peace of mind and isn't that difficult....
The sound is what really gets you.... A meld of plastic snapping, metal creaking and tyres squealing all at once, the noise is extraordinarily loud.... The silence afterward, though, is deafening... When we're in charge of a tonne or more of metal, hurtling down the road, we need to pay attention... The perils of texting while driving... I urge people to ignore that text till they've removed the keys from the ignition...
If only people followed the prescribed safety guidelines....realisation by commuters that honking doesn't really serve a purpose, and for folks to practice lane-driving. We need to be more responsible road users - obey traffic laws and be compassionate towards accident victims... If each one of us does our bit on the road... It gives a great peace of mind and isn't all that difficult.... Let me explain - Texting and driving is now in plague proportions all over the world... It seems like it's now a race to see who can answer the quickest... Years ago, you could almost text without looking, (like grandpa's type writer...) just by feeling the keypad. But with innovations in technology, the advent of touchscreen phones, virtual keyboards need to be watched to ensure that you don't send gobbledygook... But here's the thing - they should only be watched when it's appropriate. And driving is as far from an appropriate time as you can get... And the decision to text instead of drive shows nor only lack of forethought, but also a lack of responsibility...
Feel sorry for the victim...
Life is so odd sometimes, so absurd and so insignificant, and then suddenly so thrilling.....
If Subroto Roy is behind bars for reasons known to all, then why doesn't the same rule apply to the flamboyant Vijay Mallya ? He has money to spare for a Caribbean team, private yacht, F1, Derby, Kingfisher calendar, birthday party with celebrities, socialites, models, politicians and directors of the corporate sector and who's who of the world and declares a loss of 17000 crores... Is this some kind of a joke ? Why don't the henchmen extract people's bank money back from him .... The lives of the high and mighty... Hah !
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