Liger
Starring Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Pandey,Ramya Krishnan, Makarand Deshpande, Mike Tyson
Directed by Puri Jagannadh
There are many reasons why the viewer feels sorry for himself while watching this shoddy homage to Bruce Lee’s yesteryears’ feasts of fury. There is a big poster of the legendary Lee in the gym where our hero trains for Mix Martial Arts . I felt sorry for poor Lee for being seen anywhere in this scream of a screen scheme.
But I felt sorriest for the globally honoured boxer Mike Tyson. They have changed his name to Mike Anderson and made him a criminal who kidnaps Ananya Pandey and then gets bashed up by Vijay Deverakonda(VD).
Seriously. Liger is the kind of cinema that brings a bad name to cinema. It is fun to begin with. Early scenes of VD training with guru Ronit Roy with his mother monitoring every move including any activity in his son’s love/sex life, communicate a feeling of frisky masti. But somehow it all comes to nought ,a spiral downwards that writer-director Puri Jagannadh seems incapable of controlling.
Forget any sign of restrain, Puri seems to have no idea where the plot’s upper torso ends and the rectum begins. This is a film for the idiots by the idiots. The actors are largely hams with Ramya Krishnan taking the cake. She is constantly loud and overbearing . VD tries every time to calm her down. But the lady is angry.And why not?
VD remains the one connection with sanity in this creepy cheesy carnival of lunacy. Nothing makes sense, least of all the screenplay which is crammed with cramping campy corny situations , like Chunky Pandey, in a case study of crossbred nepotism , shows up as his own daughter’s father lording over Las Vegas as a biryani version of an affluent NRI.
More corn? Coming up. Watch Mike Tyson turn up as some kind of Crazy Joe who loves to fight. Why is Tyson a part of this screwball film about a Lion-Tiger who changes sports and becomes a ransom negotiator when Ananya Pandey is kidnapped. Anyone who kidnaps her needs all our best wishes.
Amidst the hamming , heaving and heavy lifting Deverakonda shows off his admirable fighting and dancing skills. It’s like playing the piano in a room filled with tone-deaf revelers high on hooch. Spare yourself this ordeal unless you are a diehard Deverakonda fan.
