By Meghana Pawar - Jan 29, 2016 10:53 AM

Rating: 3/5

One line Review: A sports film that narrates the story of how an ordinary girl becomes National level boxing Champion with the help of her coach.

Positive Points: The film features powerful performances by R. Madhavan and newbie Ritika. The movie highlights the troubles faced by the sports personal, lack of facilities, politics in sports and all other brutal realities that exist. The run time of the film.

Negative Points: The plot of the movie is highly predictable. The story gives us glimpses of SRK's Chak De India. Also, the importance of the sport and the patriotic factor is not very high, the relationship between the master and his student, takes the centre stage.

Plot: Adi Tomar (R. Madhavan) is a boxing coach with the Indian Boxing Association. He is super fit and crazy about boxing but, is very short tempered by nature. His career in Boxing ended due to politics in the sport and that made him enter the field again as a coach. Seeing his rowdy behaviour, the association head Dev (Zakir Hussain) transfers him to Chennai, the zone of weakest boxing players. He now had to lead and train woman boxers of Chennai. Unhappy with the current team, Adi loses hope. Then, he meets Madhi (Ritika) who is the sister of the star boxer of the Chennai Team Laxmi a.k.a. Lux (Mumtaz Sircar). He sees that Ritika is extremely talented and expresses his desire to train her in the sport. Madhi an aggressive fisher woman agrees not for anything else but only for money.

The movie unfolds as it depicts the training sessions, difficulties in Madhi's family and politics in the association. Coach Adi wants to see Madhi playing for India in the upcoming National Championship. Midst the matches and the hardcore training sessions, Madhi falls in love with her master - coach Adi sir. What this relationship will lead to? Will the association members succeed in putting down Adi's dream of seeing Madhi at the top? Will she achieve the championship title? Answers rest in the climax of the film.

Direction and other Technical Aspects: Sudha Kongara has done a pretty decent job when it come the directional aspect. There are hardly any dull moments in the film, but predictability kills the excitement. This is a powerful sports film with all the rugged aspects attached to it. The camera work and the cinematography are good. The performances of the actors upheld the film in true sense. The entire concentration shifts from the sport to the love angle due to which the plot loses its charm. The sport is not presented well and its importance has not been flaunted, which is a drawback for a sports film.

Performances: R. Madhavan perfectly fits in the title role and acts flawlessly as a khadoos. He has worked hard on the role and taken care of his physique. He expresses all the emotions and ruggedness with utmost sincerity.

Ritika Singh who is a National Level boxer in real life is a true revelation. She acts like the character is her very own. She moulded herself in the role superbly. She is brilliant as Madhi.

Zakir Hussain as Dev is average. We have seen him in this avatar several times in the past. The character of the baddie has not been written well. Hence, there is less opportunity for the actor to portray his part well.

Other supporting characters are good in their part.

Music: Some songs are unnecessarily put up that do not add much value to the movie, except for the one which is used to depict the National Championship matches.

Final Verdict: 'Saala Khadoos' is a rugged sports drama with a predictable plot. The film features exceptional performances by R. Madhavan and Ritika Singh. Overall it is a good film that makes up for a onetime watch.