Irudhi Suttru (Tamil, 2016)

Sports-based films are a rarity in Tamizh cinema. When the occasional one comes across, it almost always starts lamenting about the sorry state of affairs due to intra-departmental politics or becomes a love story in the background of a sports drama. But Irudhi Suttru transcends all those clichés and transforms into a thrilling sports drama that touches upon various topics like coach-protégé relationship, familial pressures, sibling rivalry etc in just under 2 hours.

More than the actors, it is the director Sudha Kongra who needs to be lauded for envisioning such a film and the producers who backed the product without forcing any sort of commercial compromises. The research undertaken by the team shows when they confidently talk about various Boxing competitions in the country and the end credits about the scale of achievement of our women boxers indicates the reason this knot was chosen.

Directors often look to cast non-actors for they come without any baggage and are never plastic. In that vein, the choice of Ritika Singh as the protagonist Madhi makes a lot of sense for she brings a rawness that is fresh to mainstream cinema. Being a real-life fighter herself the mesmerizing stunts are not surprising, but the way she emotes during various stages love & agony with her parents, sibling & coach is astounding to say the least.

It is kudos to Madhavan that he fits the role of a boxing coach to a T. When he could have done umpteen commercial films across the action, his patience to wait for the right role has paid off & he underplays big-time to let the limelight shine rightly on Ritika. His beefed up body and dialogue modulation are perfect for the role.

It is not easy for a music director to pack 4 songs in the first half and still reap the praises unless he is Santhosh Narayanan. His bass-rich background score offers a significant & strong foundation throughout the run time. Similarly the way the boxing thud has been captured & used by the sound design (Sound factor team) and the mixing (by Suren) teams add authenticity to the proceedings.

Cinematography by Sivakumar Vijayan is easy on the eye both within the ring and outside it. He has followed the grammar having the sun in the middle during many pivotal sequences which looks wonderful on screen. The editor Sathish Suriya has worked well in tandem with the cameraman by using his intricate cuts to convey the tension within the ring. Nice to see how he cuts to the two ladies who remove their purdah to clap for Madhie when she wins her bout.

The voice-over Tamizh radio commentary during the final bout is extremely cheesy and it would have been nice if they had toned it down more. Certain dialogues too looked to be primarily intended as crowd-pleasers which increase the melodrama as the film moves into the third act. Thankfully it did not prove to be a major dampener to proceedings.