Movie: Liger
Director: Puri Jagannadh
Release date: 25 August 2022
Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Panday, Ramya Krishna, Ronit Roy, Vishu Reddy, Mike Tyson
Producers: Karan Johar, Puri Jagannadh, Charmme Kaur, Apoorva Mehta, Hiroo Yash Johar
Banners: Dharma Productions, Puri Connects
Music Score: Sunil Kashyap
Dialogue Writer: Puri Jagannadh (Telugu), Prashant Pandey (Hindi)
Cinematography: Vishnu Sarma
Editor: Junaid Siddiqui
5/10
The IBC News Rating
After tremendous promotions across Tollywood and Bollywood, finally, Vijay Devarakonda’s Liger film hit the theatres today. Let us see if the film is worth its hype or not.
Story :
The story revolves around Karimnagar residents Balamani (Ramya Krishna) and Liger (Vijay Devarakonda). Balamani wants her son Liger (Vijay) to become a national champion in MMA. To achieve their goal, both move to Mumbai, and Liger concentrates on his career dream. But meanwhile, he gets distracted from his goal because of his love for Taniya (Ananya Panday). The rest of the film deals with the dispute between the lead couple and how the Liger succeeded in getting the World MMA championship in Las Vegas.
What’s Entertaining & What’s Boring:
The film has commercial elements which the masses will love to some extent. The lead pair’s dialogues, songs, and glamor quotient, Puri, are spot on with these factors. Vijay Devarakonda and Ramya Krishna create good entertainment with their best action. Vijay has done great work in building his body to suit MMA fighter character
One of the most significant drawbacks is that the story is the same old Kick-Boxing drama. The only difference here is that Puri has taken MMA instead of kickboxing. But sadly, he does not make use of the concept well.
There are many scenes in the second half which defy logic. The screenplay goes for a toss in the second half as the film slows down in many areas. The climax of the film is also routine and expected. The film has double-meaning dialogues, which will be uncomfortable for the family audience.
Performance of Cast & Crew
Vijay Devarakonda delivers his fantastic performance as always. Be it his dialogue delivery, dances, or mass screen presence, Vijay is a treat to watch on screen and is very lovable in his role.
Ananya Pandey is impressive and provides excellent eye candy for the masses. Her chemistry with Vijay Devarakonda is also good. Ramya Krishna steals the show with her mass presence and quickly pulls out her role. Mike Tyson has a limited screen presence but impresses everyone with his role.
The movie has high production values, and the Cinematography is good. Every location and visual looks authentic and gives the film a rustic vibe. Background music is the biggest asset of the film. But Songs fail to impress. Editing could have been a lot better.
Coming to the director Puri Jagan, his main strength in any of his films has always been the characterization of his heroes, and in this film, too, he is spot on. But other than that, Puri failed in all aspects. He superbly showcases Vijay Devarakonda and makes the film watchable only because of Vijay. Coming to the story, he wrote it in a very predictable way that tests patience.
First Half & Second Half:
The movie opens impressively and draws us into the narrative as we get accustomed to the antics of Vijai Devarkonda. The combination of Puri Jagannadh’s writing, Vijay’s body language, and dialogue delivery provide good entertainment in the first half, even in the most predictable circumstances.
We get to the actual story around the pre-interval mark, ending with a neat interval bang. With the average first half, the expectations get on to the second half of what is in store next.
However, Puri Jagannadh pours water on those expectations by taking the narrative on a predictable beaten-to-death path. Even the Lady fighters episode in Las Vegas is another patience-testing one.
The climax of the MMA international finals with Mike Tyson and with all the six-packs and action is as predictable as possible. Even within the short duration, it appears a bit overdone.
Impressive:
Vijay Devarakonda Performance
Ramya Krishna
Unimpressive:
Silly Plot
Predictability
Second Half
Terrible love track
‘The IBC News’ take on Liger:
On the whole, Liger is just a passable film with a highly routine narrative. If you are a hard-core fan of Vijay Devarakonda or Puri mark scenes, the film is worth a visit once to theatres.
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