This was one of the movies which was on my watch-list and I am quite happy that a movie on such an important topic has been made. Two very strong messages are in this movie. One, is towards women whose lives have been stereotyped into the ground. This movie is in a way, an inspiration for women who really want to pursue boxing as a profession. Two, is how politics and rivalry blinds people from seeing the good of the nation. This has been a recurring problem in the world of sports, where political agendas has come in the way of sports in many forms.
The story here is an underdog story. A coach with tremendous talent has been transferred to Chennai where boxing is not so prevalent due to rivalry with the Head of the Staff. A rowdy girl who is born to box is noticed by the coach and he wants to coach this girl in order to bring back women's boxing and to redeem his image in the world of boxing.
The most stand-out performance is given by Ritika Singh as Madi. She is rowdy, arrogant, angry and also lovable at the same time. She completely immersed herself in this role and produces a character which will be remembered for a long time. Madhavan as the angry, frustrated coach is also pretty solid. I have seen Madhavan do very normal roles but this was out of the blue. Often when an actor comes out of his comfort zone the character falls flat but not in this case. Mumtaz Sorcar as Lux follows a very dark path but as this is Hindi cinema, she redeems herself at the end. The only person who couldn't come out of the stereotypical portrayal of the villain is Zakir Hussain. He doesn't do anything special and doesn't even try to under-act. He does the dialogues like the villains from the 8o's. For me he was the weakest part of the movie.
In terms of direction, I really liked the cinematography. The silent moments. But then it was shattered with the narration. Bollywood is still afraid to NOT explain things. This movie is pretty simple so it is predictable what will happen so the narration and pace should be crisp so that we can feel the punches. The fighting scenes are very bland. After watching movies like Rocky and Creed and SouthPaw, a little more is expected from a boxing scene. The songs are fine. The over-use of dialogue pretty much slows down the movie. It is time Bollywood stops underestimating the audience.
All in all it is a fresh movie. A change in the current lot of movies that are coming. A must watch
The story here is an underdog story. A coach with tremendous talent has been transferred to Chennai where boxing is not so prevalent due to rivalry with the Head of the Staff. A rowdy girl who is born to box is noticed by the coach and he wants to coach this girl in order to bring back women's boxing and to redeem his image in the world of boxing.
The most stand-out performance is given by Ritika Singh as Madi. She is rowdy, arrogant, angry and also lovable at the same time. She completely immersed herself in this role and produces a character which will be remembered for a long time. Madhavan as the angry, frustrated coach is also pretty solid. I have seen Madhavan do very normal roles but this was out of the blue. Often when an actor comes out of his comfort zone the character falls flat but not in this case. Mumtaz Sorcar as Lux follows a very dark path but as this is Hindi cinema, she redeems herself at the end. The only person who couldn't come out of the stereotypical portrayal of the villain is Zakir Hussain. He doesn't do anything special and doesn't even try to under-act. He does the dialogues like the villains from the 8o's. For me he was the weakest part of the movie.
In terms of direction, I really liked the cinematography. The silent moments. But then it was shattered with the narration. Bollywood is still afraid to NOT explain things. This movie is pretty simple so it is predictable what will happen so the narration and pace should be crisp so that we can feel the punches. The fighting scenes are very bland. After watching movies like Rocky and Creed and SouthPaw, a little more is expected from a boxing scene. The songs are fine. The over-use of dialogue pretty much slows down the movie. It is time Bollywood stops underestimating the audience.
All in all it is a fresh movie. A change in the current lot of movies that are coming. A must watch