Giri Prashath

This seems to be a shallow boxing movie that an enthused director created out of haste in order to stay with the trend of a sport based movies, if you want to take only the literal meaning of the movie. But this movie is more than that and Ranjith is one of the gems that we have in Tamil film industry. He has created a well thought out, beautifully written, best executed movie that brings out the stories of the unsung heroes of the Tamil diaspora. First of all, there was no gender discrimination. Be it male or female character, they had equal screen presence and impact on the storyline.I was particularly spell bound by Pasupathi's performance as a coach AKA mentor and Mariyamma w/o Kabilan. It is only fair to address this relation as Kabilan h/o Mariyamma and that's the impact she has in this movie. Special mention to Daddy and Dancing rose who nailed their roles. Kabilan vs Rose could be one of the best fights you would have ever witnessed in a Tamil boxing movie. Coming to the discrimination aspect, Mohammad Ali is the GOAT not because he is the most skillful boxer but because he is the most determined boxer ever walked on this planet. Besides that, he is a great leader. He risked everything, even his life to work against oppression and racism. His life and ideas have definitely inspired Ranjith on making this movie which you can witness in many of the shots throughout the film. I presume this movie could be loosely based on Ali vs Frazier standoffs (do watch the thirilla in manilla highlights- more than 750 punches were landed in this fight!!) that has been pitched in as Kabilan vs Vembuli. The last fight even ended exactly how Ali vs Sonny liston ended. Overall the cast was great, story was good, execution was perfect and the film is beautiful. I would strongly suggest you watch this movie if you like boxing and you will like it so much that you choose to review it to spread the word like me.