Saala Khadoos Reviews

Saala Khadoos Movie Review

Though Rajkumar Hirani hasn't directed his production venture Saala Khadoos, one can surely see sparks of brilliance in the movie, which revolves around the murky Indian boxing arena.

At the center of the plot is Aditya Tomar aka Adi (R. Madhavan), a bitter boxing coach, who gets wronged at all turns of life. While his wife elopes with another boxer, his coach Dev Khatri (Zakir Hussain) sabotages his career for money. He then becomes a boxing coach however, due to his acerbic tongue and care-a-damn attitude he is transferred by Khatri to Chennai after he gets falsely accused in a sexual harassment case. There he discovers an unruly fisherwoman, Madhi (Ritika Singh) while she is hitting the members of the selection committee, who gives the judgement against her sister Laxmi, who is a struggling boxer trying to land a sports quota job in the police force.

Seeing her innate talent, Adi decides to take her under his wing to make her, nothing less than, a world champion and lures her to devote sometime to boxing by giving her a daily wage. While Adi is the cranky coach, Madhi is his rumbustious student and the duo forms a precarious alliance. From hostility to angst to respect to love, Madhi's feelings for her coach goes through a roller coaster ride. Will Madhi be able to fullfil her coach's dream? Will they be able to overcome the hurdles that they face? What does Adi do when Madhi expresses her feelings to him? How the dynamics of their relationship change? Well to know the answers to these questions you will have to see the movie.

The film is inspired by several real life incidences and it successfully explores the shoddy state of India's women boxing teams. Right from rampant internal politics to the demand of sexual favours to reach the top, the film captures just about everything. Though it fails to evoke the emotions that Chak De India did, it certainly is far ahead of Mary Kom.

The movie has a rather predictable plot but performances of the film's lead pair is its USP. Madhavan, who was last seen playing a hen-pecked husband in Tanu Weds Manu Returns, is the macho but eccentric boxing coach in Saala Khadoos and he impresses as the no-nonsense Adi. Have to say we are in awe of his versatility as an actor.

Ritika Singh, who is marking her debut with the movie, is certainly the find of the year. Her Madhi is boisterous and annoying and will get on your nerves. However, her character does go through a sea change and she convinces you with her terrific acting prowess. She is not only great on camera but she has also put in a lot of hard work to get in to the skin of her character. Her punches look realistic and despite a no make-up look, she is charming on screen. The duo makes a very unlikely, but at the same time, an adorable pair. Zakir Hussain is perfect in his role and is so nasty that he will make you squirm in your seat. Nasser, who is playing Pandian a junior boxing coach in Chennai, and Mumtaz Sorcar, who is playing Ritika's sister, too lend good support to the lead cast.

Director Sudha Kongara Prasad spent nearly six years of her life on the movie but today she should be really proud of all her efforts, as the end result is great. The film is realistic yet commercial and she has been able to extract great performances from her actors. However, the predictable story and the background score and songs, are the film's Achilles' heels.

All in all Saala Khadoos is a well-intentioned film, which has its heart in place.

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Saala Khadoos

Rating:

January 29, 2016

Cast: R Madhavan, Ritika Singh, Mumtaz Sorcar, Zakir Hussain, Nasser, MK Raina

Director: Sudha Kongara

Sports movies by their very nature tend to be predictable, formulaic affairs. They seldom deviate from such traditional narratives as the rise of the underdog, the comeback of the temporarily waylaid, the transformation of the rebel star into a team player, and the redemption of the tireless, committed coach, himself a failed professional.

Saala Khadoos, written and directed by Sudha Kongara, fails to rise above the timeworn clichs of the genre, but nevertheless succeeds in creating a credible world and, thanks to affecting performances from its principal players, gives us characters that we can care about.

Former boxer and disgraced coach Adi (R Madhavan) is exiled to Chennai by corrupt boxing federation big-shot Dev Khatri (Zakir Hussain), who has an old axe to grind. Now stuck coaching below-average female boxers, Adi finds a potential champion in firebrand fish-seller Madhi (Ritika Singh), whose sister Laxmi (Mumtaz Sorcar) is part of the local boxing team. In Madhi, our cantankerous coach seems to have to met his match, a pigheaded rebel with little regard for protocol.

It's a recipe for melodrama, and the film falls right into that trap. Clashes between coach and pupil get tiresome after a point, but unlike Mary Kom whose screenplay merely glossed over the struggle of becoming a champ, real issues are addressed more honestly here. From the politics involved in selections, to corruption, sexual harassment at the hands of officials, and even the tendency to become romantically involved with mentor figures, Kongara's script doesn't skimp on uncomfortable truths.

It's the little details, however, that stay with you. A crackling confrontation scene between Madhi and her sister Laxmi cuts close to the bone, and scenes in which the girls' mother is revealed to be more broadminded and encouraging than their father are particularly refreshing. The chemistry between Adi and his protg is combustible stuff, and acting across the board is impressive, with credible turns from such reliable players as MK Raina and Nasser in supporting roles.

Of the central cast, Zakir Hussain is terrific as the slimy official, and Mumtaz Sorcar is very good as Laxmi. R Madhavan does a solid job as the shaggy haired, bulky built coach who refuses to give up on his troubled star, but the knockout performance is delivered by real-life boxer and acting debutant Ritika Singh who is wholly convincing as the untamable Madhi. She has an arresting presence on screen, and you're genuinely moved by her plight.

Saala Khadoos sticks to familiar ground as far as a sports film goes, although the climatic bout is genuinely thrilling. Amidst all the faux sentimentality, we still get a protagonist that we can't help rooting for. That is the film's real success. I'm going with three out five.

by Subhash K Jha Jan 29, 2016 13:30 IST

#black #Bollywood #Boxing #Chak De! India #Madhavan #Mary Kom #Million Dollar Baby #Movie review #Raging Bull #Rajkumar Hirani #Ritika Singh #Saala Khadoos

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There aren't too many competent sports films in our country, and certainly not too many that can claim to penetrate the hearts and minds of the sports and the sportsperson. Shimit Amin's Chak De India , in spite of its rabble-rousing nationalism, managed to give us a clear and coherent portrait of the sport and the player.

In Saala Khadoos, director Sudha Kongara Prasad gives us an unusual film, where the stereotypical character of the boxing coach meets his match when he picks up a foul-mouthed uncouth boxer for training into championship. There is nothing in the plot to suggest even a whiff of the unexpected. If you've seen the gruff Clint Eastwood barking at his protge Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby, you would know where the inspiration for Sudha Kongara Prasad's film comes from. Or for that matter, the under-developed relationship between boxing coach Sunil Thapa and his fiery protge, Priyanka Chopra in Mary Kom.

Saala Khadoos constructs a case-study for a lingering guru-shishya kinship through scenes and dialogues that are unnerving in their capacity to accommodate all the ingredients associated with the mentor -pupil genre of cinema (there is even a distinct dash of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Blackin stormy liason between the leader and the bled).

Yet, there is a freshness in the dynamics that define coach Adi (Madhavan)'s relationship with his protge Madhi (newcomer Ritika Singh). The two actors, specially the more experienced Madhavan, dig deep into their respective characters' psyche to draw out character-defining traits and quirks that penetrate the sometimes-shallow sometimes-sublime treatment of the subject.

The narrative is virile and vibrant, while the energy-level is mostly high. And yes, Madhavan's AMAC (Angry Middle Aged Coach) act crackles with far more tension than what Shah Rukh Khan brought to a similar role in Chak De India. This is Madhavan's career-defining performance. He sinks so deep into his role both physically and emotionally, that the actor becomes one with the act, the dancer and the dance, the sports and player merge and melt into one another with a soul-stirring fluency.

Regrettably, a wispiness and, even worse, a weariness creeps into the lengthy narrative specially when the girl begins her embarrassing seduction act over her coach. I held my breath for the seduction song which luckily didn't come. It's all charted territory explored by two adventurous players who certainly deserved a more rewarding journey with many more bends and curves.

It's not as if the writer-director plays it safe all the way. There are some moments in the film when the combustive energy of the mentor and the protge threatens to flare up into something impressively explosive. But the big moments are squandered in stereotypical exchange of insults, not quite adding up to the life-giving food for thought that you hope and pray the film would eventually turn out to be.

Saala Khadoos is an unabashed unapologetic film, whose two main characters' graph moves together from the opposite sides of the moral arc. While he's gruff, cynical and burnt-out, she is raw, eager and stepping out into the big wide world. We both know they would find their redemption together. It's the way the cookie crumbles.

Saala Khadoos promised a rugged sports film, and it delivers. The film, though lengthy, never makes a dull watch. Sathish Suriya's editing is sharp. It takes away the rough edges from some of the awkwardly written scenes, where the lines seem to be borrowed from rejected episodes of Chandrakanta.

But let's salute the film's third hero. Sivkumar Vijayan's camerawork glides across the simmering surfaces capturing the anger frustration and bitterness of Madhavan's character before moving inwards to peer into the anatomy of human failure and redemption.

Alas, the film itself doesn't match up to the glory of its stunning visual velocity or its leading man's towering performance. This is Madhavan's Raging Bull. By far his career's finest performance. The film could have been better, though. Much better.