Whenever we come across a film directed
by a woman (which is few and far between), we tend to have preconceived
notions that it would either be a mouthpiece for their gender's
upliftment or a soft mushy romance story. However with ‘Irudhi Suttru’
Sudha Kongara takes the viewer completely by surprise with her sports
drama riding on a love story told in a raw manner which makes for a
pleasurable and emotionally moving viewing experience.
Madhavan plays Prabhu a hot headed
national boxing coach who as punishment for not bowing to the higher
authorities is sent to Chennai with a challenge to discover and train a
woman boxer for the National Championship. Prabhu lands in the North
Chennai region where Nassar is the bungling trainer pinning his hopes on
his student Lux (Mumtaz Sorcar). Madhee (Rithika Singh) is Lux’s
sister who sells stolen fish and has a spirit like a wild horse. Prabhu
sees a world level boxer in Madhee who is totally not interested but
agrees to train for the bribe of Rs.500 a day the coach offers. The
rest of the story is about whether the failed coach succeeds in training
a mere fisherwoman into a world champion.
Rithika Singh as the firebrand Madhee
scorches the screen in every frame of the film and is easily the number
one contender for many an award this year. Rithika's posture and body
language is literally that of a tigress when showing her attitude or
when fighting but then she is all tenderness when she falls in love with
Maddy and every time he rejects her. Not to forget she looks fetching
in the one scene she appears in saree to impress her man. It is not an
exaggeration to say that she receives the thunderous applause of a mass
hero every time she scores. A Red Carpet Welcome to this talented
youngster. Maddy the ever loveable chocolate boy has completely
transformed into the washed out boxing coach Prabhu with a troubled
past.
Kudos to him for dedicating close to
three years for the role and more so for letting the heroine hog the
limelight. The way Maddy underplays his role is what elevates Rithika's
and the duet of emotions between the two lingers long after the film is
over. Maddy does deliver his knockout punch in the climax when tears
well up in his eyes for the first time after maintaining an emotionless
demeanour until then. The chameleon Nassar this time assumes the color
of a local coach and needless to say lives the role delivering laughs at
regular intervals, especially the liver comedy in the liquor shop
brings the house down. Kaali Venkat plays the father of two grown up
girls and he ensures laughter in all the five or six scenes he appears.
Mumtaz Sorcar as the sibling who
places her career before her sister and later repents is excellent and
so is the entire cast from the mother of the girls to the ever
dependable Radha Ravi. Zakeer Hussain as Dev the head of the boxing
board is the usual villain who lusts for the girl and tries to disrupt
the hero from winning.
Santhosh Narayanan’s music score is
mind blowing and all the songs are set to convey the different moods and
emotions which they do convincingly. Sivakumar Vijayan’s
cinematography and Sathish Suriya's editing are top notch. C.V. Kumar
and Sashikanth can be proud of producing this gem.
Sudha Kongara deserves every praise
that comes her way for writing and directing ‘Irudhi Suttru’ (R Madhavan
and Rajkumar Hirani are credited with additional screenplay). Sudha
conveys Maddy’s weakness for women and his passion for boxing in less
than thirty seconds in the opening scene proving her grip on the
medium. Her hard work is evident by getting Rithika and Mumtaz two non
Tamil speakers to get the perfect lip movements and body language which
makes them easily acceptable to the audiences.
The local flavour of North Chennai is
captured well enough to rival the likes of Vetrimaaran and Ranjith.
The training scenes are so realistic that the audience begin to feel the
strain and that is credit to the maker.
Every sportsman has a driving force
that takes him to victory and for the reluctant Mathee it is her love
for the older man which is convincingly told. The second half lags a
bit which is easily forgiven when it leads to the riveting climax when
we are enlightened about the feats of Indian Women Boxers.
