Alappuzha Gymkhana, the new movie from Khalid Rahman starring Naslen and a whole bunch of young talents, is not a plot-heavy film. In fact, the movie’s structure is not even your usual underdog story. But like how Rahman took the challenge of making this chaotic fun ride in Thallumala, he is depending on his ability to mount scenes engagingly to create a fun film that just shows a practical episode in the lives of a bunch of amateurs. Yes, the lack of a story arc is making the movie miss that conventional end punch. But the groundedness of the film sort of makes it an absorbing watch.
Jojo Johnson is our hero, and he and his gang flunked the twelfth standard exams. Clueless about what to do next in life, they decided to join a boxing academy, Alappuzha Gymkhana, in order to get some grace marks and secure a sports quota admission. The lazy folks who had no passion for boxing realize that it is not going to be easy for them, and what we see here is their attempt at winning the state-level championship.
MILD SPOILERS AHEAD! Like I said in the beginning, it is not a plot-heavy film. Rahman is teasing us with some possibilities of backstories. But the movie is never going into that space. Actually, if you look at the film in totality, it is more like a story about a bunch of folks who realized what role they would fit into once they went through some major event. Rahman is not feeding you this coming-of-age angle of the story in a conventional manner. He is doing that by breaking certain conventions of character building. For instance, our hero is just a chatterbox, and the film never really tries to be this heroic thing where he transforms after a point into some sort of hitting machine. In fact, one of the hilarious elements of the movie was the fact that the most heroic episode came from someone from whom we least expected it.
The slim nature of the plot and even the looser nature of most of the main characters would make you wonder whether Girish AD wrote this movie and Khalid Rahman directed it. The banter-humor nature of the film is actually in that space. While Girish is a director who works on delivering simple humor very effectively on screen, Khalid Rahman mixes the visuals into that banter in an excellent way. From the word go, we see these fast cuts with static frames that occasionally zoom in and out with on-screen graphics, and Rahman establishes the tone and pace of the movie. A good chunk of the first half is given to show the lifestyle and aspirations of these boys, and it paves the way for a lot of humor.
It is the second half where we see the real boxing, and from being a mere laughter package till that point, the sports drama high moments start to unfold in the film. What really works here is that Khalid Rahman is not opting for the template story of underdogs being lucky. What would in real life happen for such a bunch of under-trained newbies is happening in the film, and when something unexpected happens, if you backtrack, there was enough in the first half to show us why some of them were good fighters.
One solid pillar that gives this movie stability is the cinematography by Jimshi Khalid. In a way, the visual language of Alappuzha Gymkhana can be called a restrained Thallumala. This is no Rocky or Creed that has some sort of redemption arc. In order to crack that fun element in the visual language, there has to be a uniqueness to the way the boxing is captured. And Jimshi sort of escalates the style factor as the story progresses. The funny ones are shown in the usual or exaggerated tempo, while the good fights get unique styles that really capture the talent of the boxer and the impact of their moves. The edits have that much-needed rhythm, and almost all the songs seamlessly blend into the narrative.
Naslen’s character Jojo is actually a different iteration of his Premalu character, but the confidence this time is really high. What is so good about his performances is that despite most of them being in a similar zone, he is able to bring a sense of distinctiveness to those characters. Ganapathi has done a fabulous physical transformation for this movie, and he was really good in those fighting bits. Lukman Avaran, as the short-tempered coach with the baggage of the past, pulled off his character neatly on the screen. Falimy fame Sandeep Pradeep was fun to watch. Franco Francis, who was memorable in Thanneer Mathan Dhinangal, gets a really solid character in this film as Shifas Ali, and I hope this becomes his major break. Kathal fame Anagha Maya Ravi as this dancing boxer had that charm and energy in her performance. Shiva Hariharan, Baby Jean, Shon Joy, Kiran, etc., are the other names in the cast, and they were all super fun to watch.
In many ways, Alappuzha Gymkhana is a clutter breaker. If you try to narrate the story of this movie to someone and they sort of interrupt you by predicting the next scene, the chances of them failing are high in the case of this Khalid Rahman movie. Rahman has said in interviews that it is based on his real-life experiences of trying to train for boxing in order to get grace marks. But Alappuzha Gymkhana never becomes a totally cinematic story that has elements of real-life incidents. Perhaps the only thing cinematic about this movie is the cinematography aspect, which sort of helps it in being visually ecstatic.
Yes, the lack of a story arc is making the movie miss that conventional end punch. But the groundedness of the film sort of makes it an absorbing watch.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
