Saala Khadoos review - Today Hot News

Saala Khadoos review : Madhavan delivers a knockout performance - hotgettoday.blogspot.in

Saala Khadoos
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Cast: R Madhavan, Ritika Singh, Zakir Hussain, Mumtaz Sorcar
Rating: 2/5

Truth be told, we fell for the pre-release hype of R Madhavan’s Saala Khadoos -- it claimed to be based on ‘true life events’, had Rajkumar Hirani as the producer, and was to cast a ‘real’ boxer playing the lead character of a pugilist. But, Saala Khadoos fails on all counts and more.
It didn’t help that comparisons were made with Chak De!, Million Dollar Baby and Mary Kom, for this film is not a sports drama. In fact, Saala Khadoos is your run-of-the-mill story of coach and his student.

R Madhavan looks every bit the disgruntled coach and totally takes the cake when it comes to hurtling abuses and stating the obvious in a rude manner.

The movie starts on a high note – Adi Tomar (R Madhavan) is an obnoxious, cynical boxer-turned-coach, wronged time and again by the federation chief (Zakir Hussain) and a corrupt system crumbling from political interference.

A high-octane sequence establishes the enmity between Madhavan and Hussain. And that is all the energy the movie manages to pack into it. What follows is over-the-top melodrama aimed at playing to the gallery.

Watch: Saala Khadoos review | Madhavan, Ritika stand out in this predictable film

Madhavan is transferred to Chennai from Hissar where he struggles to make peace with his new life. The predictability of the screenplay is irritating, down to the introduction of Ritika Singh, the heroine. Sudha Kongara Prasad fails as director, blurring the tricky thin line between a relatable narrative and a clichéd one.

Throw in the typical sexist stereotype: a bored, disgruntled coach yawning through the women boxers’ selection. Clearly, he feels obligated to be unimpressed with the local junior coach’s (Nassar) prized boxer, touted as India’s next big boxer. But of course she loses as her opponent had political connections.

Ritika Singh does not quite floor with her performance, but she does shine in a few sequences, making her debut quite applause worthy.

Infuriated at the injustice done to her sister, Madhi (Ritika), starts attacking the judges. Some slo-mo action moves, loud music and static camera movements help the audience realize much sooner than the coach that Madhi is the dream talent he’s been looking for. Did you just say the sequence reminded you of an Ekta Kapoor serial? We thought so too.
But what good is a melodrama without a complicated *groan* love story? So there’s the forced romantic angle between Madhi and the rude-but-caring-and-dedicated coach (Oh, so that’s why the movie title!)

Saala Khadoos could have been a far better film if it had better conviction. There are some strong dialogues commenting on the involvement of politics, sexual harassment and corruption, but these get lost in an emotionally overburdened narrative.

The film is over-the-top melodrama, and cliches aimed at playing to the gallery.

The only saving grace is the actors: Madhavan looks every bit the disgruntled coach and totally takes the cake when it comes to hurtling abuses – if nothing else, his acting justifies the film’s title. Zakir Hussain also slips into his role as a lecherous, scheming and influential man. In comparison, Ritika Singh falls a little short in her debut performance, but even she has her moments.

Apart from the acting, the comic dialogues and sequences, though sparse, keep you entertained in bits and parts. Sample some of them:

When the junior coach boasts of Laxmi’s skills during a match she eventually loses, Madhavan says, “Tumhare Lux mein koi aag nahi, sirf jhaag hi jhaag hai”.

During one of their drinking sessions, Nassar orders a second round of livers and when Madhavan stops him, he retorts, “Sir, health ke liye. Daaru peene se liver kharab hota hai. Aur daaru ke saath ye liver khaane se ye liver kharab hota hai aur apna liver safe!”

But these moments are too few in the film to leave any impact.


Yes, avoid this grumpy drama if you are looking for a good sports film. If you must, watch it for Madhavan’s power-packed performance.

                                                                                                                                                               

Saala Khadoos review

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 protégée 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 protégée, Priyanka Chopra in Mary Kom.

Madhavan and Ritika Singh in Saala Khadoos.

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 Black in 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 protégée 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 protégée 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.

An average film