Mukkabaaz Review

Mukkabaaz is a film co-written and directed by Anuragh Kashyap. From the trailers itself, the film looked very interesting and I was dying to see the film. And finally when I saw the film, I was overjoyed.

Plot: The story follows Shravan's struggle towards fulfilling his dream and winning his love while facing hardships in form of uphill castiesm and corruption of the Boxing Federation which is heightened by the political atmosphere of Uttar Pradesh.

Story and direction: From scene one itself, the film hooked me. The film is not only about an underdog rising to become a great boxer but is about much more. The film has so many layers to it and it ticked off all the boxes for me. For normally a film with so many writers, the film looks very aimless. But in this film (which has 6 writers credited), the film is very neat and tidy. It's like all the writers were in sync. The social issues highlighted were also not in a very conventional manner. Kudos to Anurag Kashyap and team, for bringing such a film to the spotlight. The characters are also so rich and deep, that you feel for each of the people present on screen. Even the jokes cracked were spot-on and didn't seem forced. The cinematography was awesome. And so were the boxing scenes. They felt so real. But I had a small little issue with the film. And that is the length. I felt that if it would have been a little above 2 hours, it would have been the masterpiece of this year.

Performances: Vineet Kumar is the star of this vehicle. With every scene, he is so impactful, that I have no words to describe his performance. Zoya Hussain was impressive too. Although she doesn't have dialogues, the facial expressions spoke lot more than words would express. JImmy Shergill was the bad-as and he nailed his character to the T. Ravi Kishan was awesome too. Therest of the supportimg cast were also very much impressive in their performances.

Music: This film had some great music too. Normally, I would not listen to such music. But since the songs are mostly situation driven, I could very easily connect with them. I would say 'Paintra' and 'Hatthapai' were my favorites.

Favorite Scene: It would be the scene where Shravan argues with his father as to why is he expecting so much from him when he himself (Shravan's father) didn't achieve anything in life. The jokes cracked as well as the performances and the realism of the scene is what make me think about it.

Verdict: For all Anurag Kashyap fans out there, please watch this film. This is one of the best so far in 2018.Films like these need our support, so that India can be at par with world cinema.

I am going with a 9/10.