Irudhi Suttru Movie Review 

The story of Irudhi Suttru (Saala Khadoos) is "Million Dollar Baby" meets "Chak De India" peppered with emotions and scenes fitting Hindi and Tamil audience. If you are a fan of feel good sports genre movie, Irudhi Suttru will give you a high.  

Plot:

It is the story of a failed boxer finding redemption through his protegee. Madhavan plays the role of disgruntled coach and Ritika Singh plays the uncouth slum-dweller who has some natural boxing talent with lots of intensity and passion.

Story and Direction:

Irudhi Suttru is Sudha Kongara's second outing after her lesser known "Drohi". Sudha Kongara blends the technical finesse of her mentor, Mani Ratnam, and rawness of Bala. The director succeeds more on the former side while the edgy raw dialogues appear a bit forced. The director should be lauded for staying the course with her story and screenplay without slipping to any forced sequences. It is impressive to see Director's level of research and genuine care with which she has handled the story. Even though the story follows the beaten-to-death sports genre template often seen in Hindi(Chak De India) and many Hollywood movies(Million Dollar Baby), Director still manages to keep it engaging with interesting mix of scenes, fresh situations.

Acting and Characterization :

Kudos to Madhavan for taking up arguably the secondary role of an angry passionate coach. Maddy has transformed his looks by bulking up his body, sporting long hair and grey beard. Madhavan as the disgruntled coach trying to bury his troubled past, plays his part very well with a lot of conviction. Madhavan's reactions  in the climax scenes will give you goose bumps and and helps end the movie on a high note. Ritika Singh is a fantastic find. Ritika Singh, a boxer turned actress, is very natural and completely at ease especially when she is in the ring and while training sequences.

Ritika's acting and her dubbing takes some time to warm-up as it appears as if she is trying too hard. Once you get used to it after the initial few reels, there is tremendous improvement in her body language, acting and expressions. Ritika Singh is light on her feet while dancing and boxing. Nasser lightens up the movie with some well timed dialogues. Mumtaz Sorcar, popular magician PC Sorcar's daughter, makes an impressive debut as Ritika Singh's sister.

Lack of Nativity

One of the nagging aspects of the movie is its lack of nativity and sense of watching a dubbed movie at times. The casting decisions of Ritika Singh's mother and other background characters further aggravates the alien feel. Madhavan opening scene (censored) when he is shown sleeping around with consenting women and spewing hateful comments about women are over-the-top. Ritika Singh's characterization and her family appear artificially constructed. Nasser and Radha Ravi help in making us feel we are watching a Tamil movie.

Technicalities

Santosh Narayanan's background score strengthens the emotional core of the movie and the songs gel well without obstructing the flow of the movie. Sivakumar Vijayan's camerawork and Sathish Surya's editing keep the scenes tight and engaging till the very end. The boxing choreography is done to look very professional. 

Final Word:

Although Irudhi Suttru does not deliver a knock-out punch, it will definitely win you over on points. Watch it for some high moments.

Rating : 3.25 / 5 

Irudhi Suttru is currently rated 68% at MC, Post your review and rating for Irudhi Suttru here