When first presented with two movies to choose from I immediately nominated Saala Khadoos. Just from the trailer it was intriguing to see a film exploring women in sports. There are too many American films nowadays that downplay a woman’s role in plots and leave them as a side character to their own story. It’s the reason why there will never be a good Black Widow film; there would be too much focus on her love life and sex appeal instead of exploring her backstory and the tragedy she suffered.

Unfortunately for me, I ended up missing the first ten minutes of the movie (the Chaat was calling my name) so I was unable to see exactly how the coach, Adi (played by Madhavan) ended up in the Chennai. But once I saw how he acted around the young boxers and ring politics, I was intrigued as to how his character would grow. Once the main character Madhi (played Ritika Singh) began knocking down officials in an attempt to avenge her sister’s loss in the ring, I was impressed with how the directors chose this as a way to introduce a woman boxer. In movies that I have seen, typically any tough woman is introduced by highlighting her sex appeal in poses she makes while fighting. But the entire shot of Madhi’s fight was highlighting how she was fighting and the moves she made. This in itself was fascinating as it was clear from the beginning of the movie that she was a good boxer but her volatile personality was bound to clash with Adi’s.

 

 

Up until Madhi’s romantic interests towards Adi, the movie was perfect. It balanced Madhi’s boxing practice with Adi’s training and constructive criticism. It was a shaky relationship between coach and student but it worked in the movie. Unfortunately, the movie lost me when it began to expand Madhi’s romantic interest in Adi. The only reason this romance was tossed in was to make Madhi’s sister, Lux, jealous and attempt to undermine Madhi’s boxing career. In the entirety of the movie, this romance made sense because Adi assumed Madhi lost a match on purpose because he would not return her affections. But, this movie brought me back after some time. After attempting to train under someone else (and getting beat by the Russian boxer), Madhi begs Adi to take her back after being arrested and realizing that boxing is her goal in life.

The whole reason I wanted to see this movie was because it broke from the trope of a woman only being wanted for her sex appeal. Even though this movie fell into the classic trope of the main woman romantically pursuing the main male, it redeemed itself by exploring the love a coach has for a boxer’s skill. In the end, this was what Adi was in love with, Madhi’s skill and her need to be the best.

As far as character growth is concerned, Adi progressed into a character who was more concerned with his student than he was with his own well being. He sacrificed his coaching career for Madhi and was more self aware by the end of the movie; pushing and encouraging Madhi to be the best she could be. Madhi definitely grew from the volatile fishmonger into a boxer who loved the sport and had great respect for her coach and the sport in the end. She was a force to be reckoned with and I cheered her all the way when she called Adi in prison and all she wanted was to box.

For anyone who has never seen a Bollywood film, I highly recommend this as their first film. They will love it from beginning to end.

-Aurora Havens