Clap – A template sports drama that remains watchable! 

Bharath Vijayakumar 

Debutant Prithivi Adithya’s Clap is a typical sports drama about an underdog overcoming the odds. There are two underdogs here. The protagonist Kathir (Aadhi), who had to miss out on his career due to an accident and then there is Bhagyalakshmi (Krisha Kurup), who is bogged down by her family and pushed away by the system. Kathir’s character is what makes Clap stand a little apart from the crowd. He is waging a daily physical and mental battle and Adhi is very good here. He doesn’t oversell his emotions and plays Kathir with a lot of sincerity. The film’s Achilles' heel is its predictability which is the case for most films of this genre. We are interested in the proceedings for most of the initial half of the film as we are invested with Kathir’s emotions. The second half, which isn’t really bad, loses a bit of steam and I think it has to do with the fact that few events are too filmy. A scheming villain works when he remains scheming on screen as well. But here Venkatram (Nasser) comes across as a little over the top and operates like a villain from a masala film.

The relationship between Kathir and Mithra (Aakanksha Singh)  is pretty interesting and Aakanksha Singh does well within the limited space that she gets. Without much dialogues, she does effectively emote what she is going through. The film is narrated mostly through the POV of Kathir and so we really do not get to feel Bhagyalakshmi’s emotions. Her win feels only like Kathir’s win. A little more inventiveness on how the protagonist overcomes the odds would have also really helped. There is an interesting bit involving a name change. But the beats become too predictable towards the end and though the film remains watchable, it sort of misses out on the high that it should have ended with. 

Bottomline

A certainly watchable sports drama that is weighed down by its predictability. But it has few redeeming features as well. 

Rating: 2.75/5

Streaming on SonyLiv