Director: Puri Jagannadh
Forged: Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Panday, Mike Tyson, Ramya Krishnan, Ronit Roy
Writers: Puri Jagannadh (Telugu dialogue), Prashant Pandey (Hindi dialogue), AR Sreedhar (co-writer)
I’m unable to determine whether or not to start this overview with how beginner Liger is or how embarrassing it’s. Tanya (Ananya Pandey) is almost groped by Liger (Vijay Devarakonda) in a restaurant. She goes to his Jeet Kune Do middle to confront him, alongside along with her associates. He occurs to be preventing a few of his fellow college students on the time, and seeing him struggle, she falls in love. Bear in mind how she was virtually groped? She doesn’t.
That is the idea for Liger‘s drama. Liger loves Tanya whereas his mom Balamani (Ramya Krishna) needs him to concentrate on profitable the nationwide championship and believes that ladies are a distraction to her son. Tanya additionally occurs to be the sister of Vish, Liger’s largest rival within the subject of martial arts.
Puri Jagannath’s Liger is a masterclass in the right way to get nothing proper. The love story is about up on such shaky grounds that you simply by no means take care of it. Not solely do the leads don’t have any chemistry, however worse they really feel like siblings. The movie assumes the protagonist routinely has our empathy as a result of is differently-abled. And worse, the film continuously mocks him within the crudest of the way, pondering the bodily punches he throws are sufficient punishment for individuals who mock him.
Jagannath needs to inform us the basic underdog sports activities story, however he by no means cares to pause and make us really feel. He runs and runs via the screenplay beats, to the purpose of the movie feeling like nonsense. We by no means take care of Liger, whose father was apparently an enormous boxer himself. We by no means really feel the dynamic between Liger and his coach (Ronit Roy), who’s lowered to talking cliches. Liger by no means learns any martial arts as a result of he’s seemingly good at each martial artwork even earlier than coaching. Then there’s a thread about patriotism and flying the Indian flag excessive, which turns into a plot level for the final half hour. My favorite half in regards to the movie might be one of many worst screenplay threads I’ve ever seen — the one involving Mike Tyson taking part in a model of himself referred to as Mark Anderson. Liger worships Mark, and in the long run, has to struggle his idol to rescue Tanya. That seems like a fantastic masala premise, however no matter Jagannadh and Devarakonda do with this story, wouldn’t get previous student-level quick movie competitions.
If this overview is feeling disjointed and and stream-of-consciousness-heavy, that’s as a result of Liger itself appears like that. It’s pedestrian on so many ranges that I’m not positive the right way to analyse the badness of all of it. I’m undecided if I’ve processed how actually beginner it’s. Liger’s stammer is inconsistent, and so is the plot. I’m questioning if that is the primary lower of the footage that was launched as an alternative of the particular movie.
Jagannadh has been down within the dumps for some time now, however he’s nonetheless identified for Pokiri (2006), which had the best climax parts within the historical past of Telugu cinema. And Liger has no climax. I’m not exaggerating. When the titles rolled, some within the viewers yelled again on the projector room and most of us have been left confused. Is that it? Hell, if the person simply remade Amma Naana O Tamil Ammayi (2003), which had boxing as its central theme, the movie nonetheless would have labored wonders. However what we get are the worst of Jagannadh’s touches — the sexism, the cynicism, abrupt enhancing patterns, weak heroines, dialogues that make you wince — you identify it.
I do know Movie Companion doesn’t give stars, however I want it did. Simply this one time. As a result of I might give this movie zero stars. In truth, if somebody requested me how unhealthy a film needs to be for it to be given zero stars, I’d present them this film.