No Fans for SRK's FAN

Shahrukh Khan is really going with bad phase at the box office. 

Last year his #Dilwale could not perform as per expectations and this time #Fan is getting even worse response at the ticket windows. After a long time SRK had tried to experiment with his choice of movies with #Fan but it really did not go well with his fans. Although it is doing decent business at overseas but in India its performance is very poor. 

In first week it has earned  ₹ 71.5 cr which was very low as per expectations still it was okay but in the second week it saw a substantial drop with a 2nd weekend collection of just ₹ 7.75 cr [Fri 1.70 cr, Sat 2.65 cr, Sun 3.40 cr.] After the end of second week its total collection is ₹ 79.25 cr. India business. 

Now the question is what went wrong with this experiment and the answer is although Shahrukh Khan performed exceptionally well in both the roles specially as the fan Gaurav but the story was not convincing at all. From mass to class all had high hopes to see an exciting thriller in form of #Fan but the screenplay was week enough to live up to the expectations.

At the present situation it is pretty much clear that it wont be able to enter even 100cr club whereas his contemporaries are now a regular member of 200cr club and sometime they eye to even 300cr. In such condition to be in the race Shahrukh’s only hope is his next release #Raees where once again he will be seen in a different kind of role, hopefully that experiment will not be a failure.

Update of Bengali Movies in the First Quarter of 2016

The beginning of 2016 was quite good for Bengali movies though it could not continue for the whole quarter. There is nothing new in that. Normally it’s not every week or every month that you can see big Bengali movies from big directors and big actors are releasing. Normally big Bengali movies come in some selective occasions only like New year, Poila Boishakh, Summer vacation, Durga Puja and Christmas and for the rest of the time small budget movies kept coming and going without making any impact. 

Let’s have a quick recap of the first quarter of 2016.

January

It will not be wrong to term January 2016 as the month of Abir Chatterjee. There was a

moment when three big hits of Abir Chatterjee were running together in theaters, in this month. These three movies were last year’s last hit #HarHarByomkesh , 2016’s two releases #Monchora and #Bastuushaap.

The month of January began with Sandip Ray directed #Monchora featuring Abir Chatterjee, Raima Sen , Paran Bandopadhyay and Shashwata Chatterjee in the lead roles. It was based on the short story by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. After a long gap Sandip Ray tried something different other than a Feluda story and this time too he was successful to connect with the audience with his simple narrative of a simple story. The performance by all the lead cast was very good. The film had a good opening and it continued to win people’s heart for next few weeks which made it the first hit of this year.

The next big release of this month was #Bastuushaap directed by Kaushik Ganguly. Once again Kaushik Ganguly had come with a unique subject and this time it was Bastu and this concept had been gelled with an interesting story revolving arout a family and their problems. The main cast was full of talented actors, Abir Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Churni Ganguly and Kaushik Ganguly himself and all five actors had delivered one of their finest performances. Also the music was quite popular which also worked in favor of the movie. This movie opened with good response and kept doing well for the whole quarter completing successful 100 days run at the theaters. So far it is the biggest hit of the year.

February

February is the month of Valentine’s Day and this year there were few romantic releases on the valentine weekend. Among them the two which got more attention were #KiKoreTokeBolbo and #Hero420

#KiKoreTokeBolbo was from the biggest production house Venkatesh Films, so obviously it got much better release and promotion among the other releases which helped it to get better opening. This Ravi Kinagi directed film was a romantic film with a fresh pairing of Ankush and Mimi Chakraborty . The pair looked lovely together and their chemistry was very impressive. Also the music by Jeet Ganguly was popular which was an added feature for the film.This film did an average business at the box office and continued to run at theaters for around one month.

#Hero420 was a India Bangladesh joint venture produced by Eskay Movies from India along with Bangladeshi production house Jaaz Multimedia. It was a romantic action film directed by Sujit Mondal and featuring Om and Raima Sen along with Nusraat Faria from Bangladesh. It was remake of a Telegu film which was full of mainstream commercial masala. As expected it did well at the small centers but failed at Big cities and multiplexes.

March

There was not a single big release to mention, in the month of March.

Best Film of Quarter 1 2016

• Bastushaap
• Monchora

Best Directors of Quarter 1 2016

• Kaushik Ganguly – Bastushaap
• Sandip Ray – Monchora

 Best Actors of Quarter 1 2016

• Abir Chatterjee - Bastushaap/Monchora
• Parambrata Chatterjee - Bastushaap
• Paran Bandopadhyay - Monchora
• Kasuhik Ganguly – Bastushaap

Best Actresses of Quarter 1 2016

• Raima Sen - Bastushaap/Monchora
• Churni Ganguly - Bastushaap
• Mimi Chakraborty - Ki Kore Toke Bolbo

Update of Bollywood movies in 1st Quarter of 2016

2015 was not a good year for Bollywood in terms of business. Compared to that the beginning of 2016 was quite better with few good quality movies including a 100cr hit.Lets have a quick recap of the first three months of 2016.

January

The month began with Amitabh Bachhan and Farhan Akhtar starer thriller #Wazir which had been directed by Bejoy Nambiar and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It had a gripping story with some solid performances by the whole cast lead by Big B and Farhan Akhtar. This emotional story of two friends connected very well with the audiences and it got a good opening with around 29cr collection in first week and 42cr in its lifetime, which is good enough to call it an average earner.

It was followed by the biggest hit of the year so far #Airlift featuring Akshay Kumar in the lead. It was based on the real life incident of the biggest human evacuation from Kuwait to India during the period of Pre-Gulf war when Iraq had attacked on Kuwait. It was a proud moment for Indian cinema when the glorious but almost forgotten story of Indian history was showcased in a Bollywood movie.This film had been promoted very well and also it had been released during the long weekend of Republic Day so it got good opening and became one of the biggest openers of Akshay Kumar’s career  with 44cr collection in its first weekend and 83cr collection in its first week. It continued doing good business at ticket windows even after first week because of the good word of mouth publicity which helped it to enter in 100cr club with around 127 cr collection in its lifetime.

Another well made film of this month was the last release of this month #SaalaKhadoos which was about an aspiring woman boxer and her coach. It was a wonderful story about the victory of an underdog which had been presented very well by the debutante director Sudha kangra. In lead roles Madhavan and Ritika Singh were perfect. But due to lack of star presence and weak promotion it could not make that big at the box office and flopped at the box office with just 15cr lifetime collection.

Another highlight of this month was two back to back sleazy adult comedies #KyaKoolHaiHum3 and #Mastizaade. Co-incidentally both featured Tussar Kapoor in the lead. The first one was the third installement of #KyaKoolHaiHum series produced by Balaji Films, which had been marketed as India’s first Porn-com. The second one was just an extended skin show of Sunny Leone with a boring and mindless story. Both the movies were very vulgar and tasteless which provided only sex no comedy. Thankfully both the movies were rejected at the box office which is enough to ensure that such cheap movies have not any bright future at the box office. Hopefully no filmmaker will invest money in such movies in near future.

February

The month of February started with Sunny Deol’s comeback film #GhayalOnceAgain. It was a routine 90’s film which has nothing new to offer except for some solid action sequences which helped it to earn around 36cr at the box office which was not good enough to call it a hit but still it was better than expected.

February is also the month of Valentines so there were three romantic movies featuring young couples which got released in three consecutive weeks. These movies were #SanamTeriKasam, #SanamRe, #Loveshuda. All these movies had almost fresh cast in the lead with good music but unfortunately none of them worked at the box office. Among them at least #SanamRe was an average earner with 30cr collection that too because of the hit music which gave it a good opening. Among the crowd of love stories of young couple there was yet another love story in the competition that was Abhishek Kapoor directed #Fitoor featuring Aditya Roy Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in the lead. People had some high hopes with

this movie because of the successful director associated with it but this film flopped badly at the box office because of its slow pace and not so good performances by the leading cast.

Finally in the third week came the second biggest hit of the quarter #Neerja. After #Airlift it was yet another story based on real life event of a brave Indian girl who had saved the life of more than 300 passengers when the plane was hijacked where she was a flight attendant. Sonam Kapoor had played the title role wonderfully delivering her career best performance. Due to lack of big star power this film got an average opening with around 22cr in its first weekend and 35cr in its first week. But its collections kept growing with every coming day because of the good word of mouth publicity and positive reviews. As a result it kept doing good business at the box office even in its 4^th and 5^th week which is very rare now a day. That helped it to earn around 75cr collection in its lifetime.

This movie was followed by two small movies #Aligarh and #TereBinLadenDeadOrAlive. Both the film flopped at the box office but #Aligarh got good reviews for its bold subject and good performances by Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkumar Rao.

March

The beginning of the month was very bad when highly expected film #JaiGangaajal could not perform as expected at the box office. There were high hopes with this Prakash Jha directed film featuring Priyanka Chopra in the leading role of a daredevil Cop. But the response from audience was disappointing. It was followed by Himesh Reshamiya starer box office disaster #TeraSuroor.

Finally on the third week of this month came the big release of this month

#KapoorAndSons, a film about family bonding produced by Karan Johar and featuring the trio of latest heartthrobs Fawad Khan, Siddharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt. They had been joined by the veteran actors Rishi Kapoor, Rajat Kapoor and Ratna Pathak Shah. Because of the popular star cast and catchy music it got good opening with around 26cr collections in its first weekend. Later its collection kept doing well because of the good feedback from both audiences and critics. That helped the film to earn around 47cr in its first weekend and more than 65cr till second week. It is still doing good business at the box office. 
The last release of this month was John Abraham starer action packed film #RockyHandsome. It was decent entertainer with its superb action sequences. At the box office it got mixed opening and could not do anything big at the box office.

Overall the first quarter was quite impressive with some really good movies doing well at the box office too. There are some biggies in the second half too including SRK starer #Fan. We are hoping for even better Q2.

Best Film of Q1 2016

• Airlift
• Saala Khadoos
• Neerja
• Kapoor & Sons

Best Director of Q1 2016

• Raja Krishna Menon - Airlift
• Sudha Kongara - Saala Khadoos
• Ram Madhvani - Neerja
• Hanshal Mehta - Aligarh
• Shakun Batra - Kapoor & Sons

Best Actor of Q1 2016

• Amitabh Bachchan - Wazir
• Farhan Akhtar - Wazir
• Akshay Kumar - Airlift
• R. Madhavan - Saala Khadoos
• Manoj Bajpayee - Aligarh
• Fawad Khan - Kapoor & Sons
• Rajkumar Rao - Aligarh
• Prakash Jha - Jai Gangaajal
• Rishi Kapoor - Kapoor & Sons
• Rajat Kapoor - Kapoor & Sons

Best Actress of Q1 2016

• Ritika Singh - Saala Khadoos
• Sonam Kapoor - Neerja
• Aditi Rao Hydari - Wazir
• Nimrat Kaur - Airlift
• Shabana Azmi - Neerja
• Ratna Pathak Shah - Kapoor & Sons
• Alia Bhatt - Kapoor & Sons

Top Songs of Q1 2016

• Tere Bin - Wazir
• De Di, Soch Na Sake - Airlift
• Sanam Re, Gazab Ka Hai Ye Din - Sanam Re
• Kheech Meri Photo - Sanam Teri Kasam
• Kar Gayee Chul - Kapoor & Sons

Review of #KapoorAndSons

#KapoorAndSons Since(1921), is a film about family bonding. It is not about a perfect family but it is about a real family where you can identify with each character. Where there is love between family members as well as there is jealousy, doubt, betrayal, differences too but still they are bonded with each other in the time of need. Director Shakun Batra who had made a confident directorial debut with #EkMainAurEkTu has given yet another mainstream commercial film with a different touch.

It is a story set in a small town near Bangalore where Kapoor family lives. The head of the

family is the grandfather who is fondly called as Dadu(Rishi kapoor). Dadu is an interesting character who enjoys porns and joints at the age of 90. He is accompanied by his son Harsha (Rajat Kapoor) and daughter-in-law Shalini (Ratna Pathak Shah). Harsh and Shalini are middle aged couple who are not in a good relationship , they have fights on every day on different issues like money , Harsh’s exytra marital affairs or Shalini’s ambition to be an entrepreneur. They have two sons, elder one is Rahul (Fawad Khan), successful novelist who lives in London. The younger son is Arjun (Siddharth Malhotra) who is a part time bar tender in Newjersy and an aspiring writer. The two brother have cold vibes too based on some issues from their past. This whole family comes together following a heart attack of Dadu. Once they came together lots of secrets came out from their past which lead them to even worse relationship. But at the end they realise no family is perfect but still you need to be there with your family member in their need. Every family member has a responsibility to complement each other.

The story may not sound oven fresh but the screenplay penned by Ayesha Devitre , Shakun Batra is definitely refreshing. Every situation looks real and the reaction of the characters

too. From the beginning there is a hint of tension in the family but that never makes it monotonous because of the regular dose of lighter scenes at regular interval. Also there are secrets which have been revealed towards the end in a perfect timing. The age old Bollywood drama is there but the situations are very new not the tried and tasted clichés. For example when was the last time you have seen a pervert 90 year old grandfather or when you have seen a romantic date in a graveyard? Even the so called love triangle where two brothers are involved with one girl that too has a refreshing end, you have to watch the movie for that. The dialogues are well written and it gives ample scope for comedy as well as it is good enough to create the melodrama towards the end.

As a director Shakun Batra has proved his calibre once again. There is no doubt he is one the finest directors among the directors whom Karan Johar has launched under his production house. Shakun Batra knows how to get the best from his cast and crew that too without being showy or flashy like some other Dharma movies. He never lost the realistic touch yet his movie never compromises with entertainment quotient.

This movie has six main characters and it must be said all are very well cast and all have

done superb job. Rishi Kapoor is excellent with his wonderful makeup. At this age he is doing quite well with experimental characters. One will simply fall in love with this cute as well as wild Dadu. His scene where he sends a video message to his grandsons will surely bring tears in your eyes. Rajat Kapoor and Ratna Pathak Shah are veterans and they have complemented each other really well as middle aged always fighting couple. There are some really loud moments in their fight scenes but still these two actors have managed to make those scenes not too dramatic. Watch these couple in a romantic moment where Rajat Kapoor sings an old Manoj Kumar Song for Ratna Pathak Shah, both of them are superb in that scene.

Among the youngsters it is Fawad Khan who has stolen the show as the Elder brother who is mature and sensible guy with a secret. At the climax you will know it takes guts to do such a role and hardly any regular Bollywood hero would have shown that courage to do such a

character. He is completely at ease in every scene whether it is his emotional scene with his on screen mother or the fun moments with his younger brother and friends. Siddharth Malhotra is good and managed quite well to stand out in the ensemble cast full of talented actors. Though there is scope for improvement in his performance but still he is likable. Alia Bhatt is not the conventional leading lady here rather she is just a part of the big ensemble still she has impressed in her short screen time. She acts like fresh oxygen in between heavy dramatic moments. She is just perfect for the character of a bindaas bubbly girl. You will definitely love her as the “Ladki Beautiful kar Gayee Chul”.  Every time she comes on screen she will bring smile to your face. She has one emotional scene towards the end where she is fabulous. She has a perfect chemistry with both of her male leads.

The technical team has done good job. Editing by Shivkumar V. Panicker is perfect. The cinematography looks fine. One should praise the costume designers not only for making the young leads look fashionable but also for making the costume for the supporting cast very realistic.

There is not much scope for songs here mainly because the romantic track has limited screen time. Still the songs go well with the script. Also there is the chartbuster “Ladki Beautiful” which is already a big hit.

Overall #KapoorAndSons is a very well made film about family bonding. There are fun as well as emotion and it will give you solid entertainment with some superb performances by the whole cast. You should watch it at least once.

Winners of Times Of India Film Awards 2016 (TOIFA)

Winners of Times Of India Film Awards 2016 (TOIFA)

Best Film
Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Best Director
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Bajirao Mastani

Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male)
Ranveer Singh - Bajirao Mastani

Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female)
Kangna Ranaut - Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Best Actor in a Negative Role (Male) 
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Badlapur

Best Actor in a Comic Role
Deepak Dobriyal - Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Best Film Critic's Choice Awards
Talvar

Best Actor Critics (Male)
Amitabh Bachchan - Piku

Best Actor Critics (Female)
Kalki Koechlin - Margarita With A Straw

Best Debut Director
Neeraj Ghaywan - Masaan

Best Debut (Male)
Sooraj Pancholi

Best Debut (Female)
Bhumi Pednekar - Dum Laga Ke Haisha

Best Supporting Actor (Female)
Priyanka Chopra - Bajirao Mastani

Best Supporting Actor (Male)
Anil Kapoor - Dil Dhadakne Do

Best Playback Singer (Female) 
Shreya Ghoshal - Mohe Rang Do Lal (Bajirao Mastani)

Best Music Composer 
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Bajirao Mastani

Best Lyricist
Varun Grover - Moh Moh Ke Dhagey (Dum Laga Ke Haisha)

Best Playback Singer (Male)
Papon - Moh Moh ke Dhagey (Dum Laga Ke Haisha)

Lifetime Achievement Award
Amitabh Bachchan

Best Song of the Year
Hamari Adhuri Kahani - Jeet Gangauli

Best Album Winner
Roy (Ankit Tiwari, Meet Brothers, Amal Mallik)

Best Jodi Of The Year award
Ranveer Singh - Bajirao Mastani
Deepika Padukone - Bajirao Mastani
 

Nominations for Zee Cine Awards 2016

Nominations for Zee Cine Awards 2016

Best Film
Bajirao Mastani
Margarita With A Straw
Masaan
Piku
Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Best Director
Meghna Gulzar - Talvar
Neeraj Ghaywan - Masaan
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Bajirao Mastani
Sharat Katariya - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Shoojit Sircar - Piku

Best Actor Male
Amitabh Bachchan - Piku
Irrfan Khan - Piku
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Badlapur
Ranveer Singh - Bajirao Mastani
Vicky Kaushal - Masaan

Best Actor Female
Deepika Padukone - Piku
Deepika Padukone - Bajirao Mastani
Kalki Koechlin - Margarita With A Straw
Kangana Ranaut - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Priyanka Chopra - Bajirao Mastani

Supporting Actor Male
Anil Kapoor - Dil Dhadakne Do
Deepak Dobriyal - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Gajraj Rao - Talvar
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Sanjay Mishra - Masaan

Supporting Actor Female
Divya Dutta - Badlapur
Huma Qureshi - Badlapur
Konkana Sen Sharma - Talvar
Shweta Tripathi - Masaan
Tanvi Azmi - Bajirao Mastani

Negative Actor
Darshan Kumaar - NH 10
Deepti Naval - NH 10
Gajraj Rao - Talvar
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Badlapur - Don't Miss The Beginning
Neeraj Kabi - Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! 

Best Performance in Comic Role
Deepak Dobriyal - Prem Ratan Dhan Payo
Kapil Sharma - Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Paresh Rawal - Dharam Sankat Mein
Sanjay Mishra - Dum Laga Ke Haisha

Debutant Director
Abhishek Dogra - Dolly Ki Doli
Harshavardhan Kulkarni - Hunterrr
Kanu Behl - Titli
Krish - Gabbar Is Back
Neeraj Ghaywan - Masaan

Best Debutant (Female) 
Bhumi Pednekar - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Harshali Malhotra - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Ridhima Sud - Dil Dhadakne Do
Shivani Raghuvanshi - Titli
Shweta Tripathi - Masaan

Best Debutant (Male) 
Kapil Sharma - Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon
Shashank Arora - Titli
Siddhant Saksule - Gour Hari Dastaan- The Freedom File
Vaibhav Tatwawadi - Bajirao Mastani
Vicky Kaushal - Masaan

Best Music
A. R. Rahman - Tamasha
Amaal Malik (Sooraj Dooba Hai) Roy
Anu Malik (Moh Moh Ke Dhaage) Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Bajirao Mastani
Shankar Ehsaan Loy (Phir Bhi Yeh Zindagi) Dil Dhadakne Do

Best Choreography
Ganesh Acharya (Malhari) Bajirao Mastani
Pandit Birju Maharaj (Mohe Rang Do Laal) Bajirao Mastani
Remo D'souza (Deewani Mastani) Bajirao Mastani
Remo D'souza (Pinga) Bajirao Mastani
Remo D'souza, Suresh Mukund, Vernon Monteiro (Bezubaan) ABCD 2

Best Lyrics
A. M. Turaz (Aayat) Bajirao Mastani
Irshad Kamil (Agar Tum Saath Ho) Tamasha
Sanjeev Sharma (Bhor) Masaan
Siddharth - Garima (Mohe Rang Do Laal) Bajirao Mastani
Varun Grover (Moh Moh Ke Dhaage) Dum Laga Ke Haisha

Best Playback Singer (Male) 
Arijit Singh (Gerua) Dilwale
Arijit Singh (Sooraj Dooba Hain) Roy
Mohit Chauhan (Matargashti) Tamasha
Papon (Moh Moh Ke Dhaage) Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Vishal Dadlani (Malhari) Bajirao Mastani

Best Playback Singer (Female)
Monali Thakur (Moh Moh Ke Dhaage) - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Shreya Ghoshal (Deewani Mastani) Bajirao Mastani
Shreya Ghoshal (Mohe Rang Do Laal) Bajirao Mastani
Shreya Ghoshal and Vaishali Mhade (Pinga) Bajirao Mastani
Swati Sharma (Banno) - Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Best Cinematography
Aseem Mishra - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Avinash Arun - Masaan
Manu Anand - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Pankaj Kumar - Talvar
Sudeep Chatterjee - Bajirao Mastan
i

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.