Absolute Review: Liger: From Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Panday to Mike Tyson nothing can save the lousy Liger

By Shachi Chaturvedi

Cast– Vijay Deverakonda, Mike Tyson, Ananya Panday, Ramya Krishnan, Ronit Roy, Vishu Reddy and Makarand Deshpande

Director: Puri Jagannadh

Runtime: 2 hours 18 minutes

Rating:  1.5/5

Synopsis

A kickboxer (Vijay Deverakonda) with boxer shorts and a bronzed, muscled chest has two distinguishing features: a mother (Ramya Krishnan) and a stammer. The mother is a modern-day Mother India, brimming with fire and brimstone. Liger’s speech impairment makes him a slow speaker but he jabs and kicks, feints and lunges, perfectly.  The hero prepares for his big break, which will allow him and his mentor (Ronit Roy) to represent India in the international arena.

Review

The film begins with the character’s introduction, but to be honest, nothing made sense from start to finish. Wondering what made a star like Vijay believe that Liger was the right film to launch his Hindi film career with. He puts in a lot of effort, but the film is far too shaky to take off and fly.

Over the past few weeks, the film’s lead actors, Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday have aggressively promoted it. What did the duo see in Liger that compelled them to travel across the country to promote the film with such zeal is yet to be figured out.

In terms of performances, the lead actor, Vijay Devrakonda, gave his all, but his newfangled physique and action chops couldn’t save the massive mess. The other actors in the cast, on the other hand, were competing to mock and ridicule each other. Ananya Panday appears to have been inserted into the film solely to showcase her glitz and glam.

Throughout the film, Ramya Krishnan is seen pulling Sivagami Devi. It appears that somebody has changed her costume and has paraphrased her dialogues from Bahubali.

Tyson appears as the film nears its conclusion, and nothing the former heavyweight champion of the world does can add weight to the film. In fact, he only drags it down to the level of his own shoe laces.

The songs were meaningless and were placed in the least expected places.

Technically speaking Liger has nothing to recommend, in terms of story, emotional depth, convincing mixed martial arts action or genuine high drama. It’s deplorable. There isn’t a single scene in the haphazard film that suggests any thought went into its creation.

Conclusion

Best is to avoid watching Liger no matter which language one chooses to see – or say – it in.