Review of Saala Khadoos

Saala Khadoos is yet another sports film where a coach who has a disturbed past in his own career, finds a raw talent and mentors his disciple to get on the top of success. The story has nothing new to offer even the sport Boxing is also not new to Bollywood. But in spite of all these while watching the film, you will be glued to the screen till the end to witness every ups and downs of the struggle of the protagonist because of the superb performance of the whole cast and the emotional connect of the story.

Adi (R.Madhavan) is a boxing coach who has been transferred to Chennai as part of politics involved in Sports association to find new talents from there. He has been charged for sexual

harassment so that he can be transferred. In Chennai, Adi finds unpolished talent in a local short-tempered fish seller Madhi(Ritika Singh). Madhi is the sister of Lakshmi (Mumtaz Sorcar) who is taking coaching in boxing in local Boxing academy where Adi has been transferred. Madhi knows skills of boxing but she is not so serious about taking it as a career. Adi finds raw talent in her which needs to be polished. He decides to help Madhi achieve the success what she deserves. But he has to convince Madhi, her family as well as academy to give chance to a new talent. Adi gives his full effort as well as spends his own money to help Madhi in every possible way. But as expected the journey is not that easy for Madhi. There are many odds like poverty and opposition in family, politics in Sports academy, jealousy from the co-athlete (elder sister here) and also Madhi's crush for her own mentor Adi. But together Adi and Madhi fights all the odds and finally she wins the world championship.

The story is not that refreshing. It has been told that it is inspired from many true stories but if you are a regular to underdog stories based on the background of sports you can find it has been inspired from many such movies. Even the screenplay is also very predictable still it

need to be said there are enough emotional moments in the screenplay to make you feel concerned for the on screen characters. The climax is wonderful; it will definitely bring tears to your eyes as the underdog you were supporting finally wins. There are two other factors which are not so new but still are refreshing. One is sibling rivalry between two sisters as two co-athletes and another one is the romantic angle between a mentor and protégé. It is quite natural for a young student to get attracted to her mentor in spite of the huge age gap and that emotion has been captured here beautifully.

As a director Sudha Kongara has chosen a safe subject which can connect easily with the audiences but credit should be given to Sudha for creating such a reliable environment with all the realistic characters. The locals of Chennai has been captured such realistically which is very rare in Bollywood movies. It has given the story very refreshing feel.

Every actor is in superb form in this movie. R. Madhavan has surprised us as a rough and

tough boxing coach which is quite different from the romantic hero image he had in Hindi movies. He has transformed himself physically as well mentally for this character. He has skilled the game of boxing very well at any point it doesn't look that he is faking it. He is arrogant angry but still he will steal your heart. Watch him in the climax sequence where he has acted brilliantly in that emotional scene. His teary eyes will make your eyes moist.

Ritika Singh who is a boxer in real life is a revelation. Her performance is one of best by any

debutante actress in many years. Being a boxer it is quite easy for her to look real in the boxing ring but her talent is not limited in the rings only. She is just awesome in every scene. Just like her on screen character she herself is raw talent who can shine as an actress. She has a cute face and charming screen presence. Hope this young girl will have a successful career ahead in acting.

Among the others Bengali actress Mumtaz Sorcar has made a confident debut as Lakshmi. Though she has very less to do but still she manages to leave impression. Zakir Hussain is very efficient as the mean pervert academy head Dev Khatri. He is wonderful in the negative role. One will definitely love to hate him. Naseer is a wonderful actor and here too he impresses in his short but powerful role of a junior coach. Special mention must be made of casting director Mukesh Chhabra for assembling a bunch of talented actors in the cast.

Technical team has done a good job. All the boxing matches have been choreographed very authentically. Tom Delmar’s action and ‘Stunner’ Sam’s stunts are very well. Cameraman Sivakumar Vijayan has captured the locals of Chennai as well as the boxing matches very well. The dialogues have been written nicely specially the ones written for the character of Adi. The music composer Santhosh Narayanan is new to Bollywood and the songs sounds refreshing but there are too many songs specially in the first half which acts as roadblock to the main story.

Overall Saala Khadoos is a movie about the success story of an underdog which has enough emotions with which everyone can relate. Also it has some really awesome performances by the leading cast. At the end one will feel connected with the story and will have feeling of satisfaction when coming out of the theaters. Go and experience it.