Five slim dudes come up in the Alappuzha Gymnasium and announce that they want to learn boxing. The man at the desk says, it will be a thousand ahead, plus monthly fees. The boys are mumbling that he can’t afford it. Okay, says the official, how about 300? There is a chorus of consent, but one of them hopefully asks, EMI? They say you shouldn’t put a hat on a hat, a joke above another. Khalid Rahman’s Malayals film Alappuzha Gymkhana is the exception to this rule. There are jokes in jokes, jokes attached to jokes, jokes hanging other jokes like the last commuter on a packed bus. And it works everything. It is a slacker comedy that works hard, a chattering stream of slack, not -sequence, sig gails and general cunning. Along the way it also passes a damn good boxing movie. For those who know and love Rahman’s Thallumaala, this is not a surprise. That 2022 film was more action than comedy; Alappuzha is the other way around. But their colorful energy is the same. Wazim and Reji were sad and richer characters, and their compulsive arouses a hindrance to personal growth, the rupture of their lives indicated by a messy, broken timeline. Alappuzha, on the other hand, is linear and fairly simple; The Central Quintet – Jojo (Naslen), Shifas Ahmed (Sandeep Pradeep), Shifas Ali (Franco Francis), DJ (Baby Jean) and Shanavas (Shiva Hariharan) – just want to end up in the college via the sports quota, and boxed as the best route. Khalid Rahman moves into one of the Thallumaala leaders, glowing Lukman Avaran, as coach Joshua, who takes the ragging squad to the district tournament (where they are doing surprisingly well) and to the state championships. Avaran is tremendous here, but – like Jhund of Nagraj Manjule – there is so much live chemistry between the younger crowd that the film doesn’t have to bother much more. The authors Sreeni Saseendran and Rateesh Ravi take their time to set up the different personalities, so that by the time they walk in the ring, we have invested enough that a fast-improvised entry song (‘Alappuzha Gang as One’) is a perfect screaming and histles moments. Slacker comedy makes way for sports film after the first half. The tournament is a standard action film format, but Rahman evades clichies in the random progress of the Alappuzha gang (there is also a women’s team from the district, much more competent, and Jojo, who juggles all two girls, falls for his star immediately). There is not much Slo-Mo, and the fights are usually fast and fast. They are extremely choreographed, with each fighter bringing their own peculiarities: the focused anger of the diminishing Christopher (Karthik), tou-a-bait bait from Deepak (Ganapati), Kiran’s (Shon Joy) ‘s growing confidence to full boiling point. It’s another reminder that Malayaly actor as its neighboring industry is where it really is. It is a male-focused film, but the energies are not a barive male. For one, the men are such friendly buffalo that it is difficult to take them too seriously (Naslen’s Lothario can’t even call the courage to kiss a willing girl). As in Thallumaala, the women in Alappuzha tolerate the greatness of their male admirers. It is no coincidence that the most impressive fighter is in the film Natasha (Anagha Maya Ravi). She boxed with a teasing smile on her face and gently jumped around her opponents. Earlier in the film, there was a small hat point for the flamboyant dance rose from Dad. Ranjith’s boxing film Sarpatta Parambari (2021). In Natasha you get something even better, a showboater that actually does the work. There are shades of Richard Linklater’s intoxicated and confused and everyone wants some films where the game is low and the world looks full of promise. Alappuzha Gymkhana is not trying to make the search for sports quota in something more than the long shot it starts. I can see the gang picking up something completely different the next year, or just sitting around and eating hard -boiled eggs and trying to impress rich girls on the ferry. I know it’s an irrational thought, but I hope they keep them together. Alappuzha gang moves as one. First published: 13 Apr 2025, 02:29 pm Ist
‘Alappuzha Gymkhana’ Review: The most delicious you will have in the cinema this year | Mint
