Liger Movie Review - A Mundane & Monotonous Masala Flick

Ashwin Ram

Liger is directed by the master of Tollywood commercial cinema Puri Jagannath. The film stars Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday in the lead roles. Bankrolled by Dharma Productions Karan Johar, it has come out as a pan-India product.

Premise

Vijay Deverakonda is the son of a Mixed Martial Arts fighter who died on the verge of winning a championship. The underdog grows up with an ambition to become an International MMA champion. How he achieves his goal forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction

Puri Jagannath has come up with a script that has no redeeming qualities. The writing is as horrible as it can be. There is potential to deliver a commercially viable entertainer but pathetically developed and poorly presented, the end product is notorious. There is a backstory which one would expect to take the drama forward, but is explained by a single-line dialogue, the understanding between VD and his coach is interesting as an idea but the impact is underwhelming. It's a bold decision to give a stammering speech layer to the protagonist, but it has zero value to the character. Dialogues are truly terrible, the silly jokes in the first half work, but how is that fair for the whole movie to be like a bad joke. The story is extremely weak with a bunch of outdated stuff. Both the halves are perfectly balanced, in the sense they are equally bad. The screenplay is so random that it moves in a ridiculous way, with unacceptable plot points that make no sense to the subject. The lack of drama in the action-sports situations bores out the show. There are too many romantic scenes and not even a single moment is relishing, again an example of such crappy direction. There is no mass theatre moment to cheer, instead there are plenty to troll. The latter is very funny at times, you cast Ananya Panday and her father in real life Chunky Panday, and they bring out tremendous twists like they both are daughter and dad in the movie too.

Performances

Except for the stammering mannerism which he goes overboard, Vijay Deverakonda pulls off the fighter role with easing grace. Beast-like physique helps big time, and dances decently as a first-time mass hero. Ananya Panday finds it difficult to showcase any sort of expression, adding to it, she plays an annoying 'Loosu Ponnu' role here, to an unimaginable extent where she says 'I'm A Star And I'm Going To Pursue My Career In Hollywood'. Ramya Krishnan has no big scope for acting, all she does is motivate the hero with uninspiring speeches. What a pride Mike Tyson is, how proud is to bring him on board for an Indian film, he appears just for the climax for the worst possible reason.

Technicalities

Music is so bad in every aspect. All the songs are unimpressive with no catchy hook lines. Lazy work with the background score, zero variety and there's a poor theme track that's played on repeat mode during the initial street fights. Cinematography is a mixed bag, certain shots are extremely blurred, some are good though, and the capturing of action sequences is done in a commendable manner. Monotonous editing in and out, scene orders are so messed up in the first half, obviously the main craftsman is to be blamed too. Action is fairly better compared to other departments, there is a genuine effort to bring the Martial Arts sport on-screen, but the quality in the out-of-the-ring sequences are missing in the crucial sports matches, the ring fights are so disappointing.

Bottomline

Unexpectedly bad outing for both Puri Jagannath the proven filmmaker and Vijay Deverakonda the likable youth icon. They've delivered a sports film with no soul.

Rating - 1.5/ 5