Director: Abbas A. Rahmath

Fight Club created curiosity among movie watchers when it was announced that it would be Lokesh Kanagraj’s production house G Squad’s maiden project. It got more attention when Uriyadi fame Vijay Kumar and gang were said to be doing the film. The movie lives up to it’s title but with its weak storyline highly reminds you of Vada Chennai but with no emotional connection to the film.

The movie stars off with Benjamin ( Kartheekeyan Santhanam) and friends current generation of North Madras youngsters who want nothing to do with rowdyism and drugs and trains the next gen of young boys to be sportsmen. Selva ( Vijay Kumar), a talented young footballer looks up to Benji and trains under him. But the fate of Selva and young boys of North Madras changes as Benji’s brother, Joseph (Avinash Raghudevan) and Kiruba ( Shankar Thas) kills him. Years after, Selva is now a hot headed youngster and is in college and in love with Shailu (Monisha Mohan Menen). He has his group of friends with no luck in training in a football club because of his anger issues. He is often suspended from football matches and kicked out of his football club. His gang and Karthi’s ( Saravana Vel) gang are rivals and Karthi is also Kiruba’s brother – in – law.

Earlier, Benji was killed by Joseph and Kiruba and Kiruba promised Joseph he will bail him out and asked him to get arrested just for a week. But Kiruba never bailed him so Joseph is out of Jail now and is planning to seek revenge and kill him. His aid to kill Kiruba is Selva and his gang. He manipulates and uses them to his wish.

Over the years, films that are set in North Madras tend to take a similar route. The films are usually about revenge, betrayal, drug peddling and brutal killings. Vada Chennai is one of the few exception that is made different and took a different route. Fight Club heavily reminds you of Vada Chennai but it misses its emotional connect with the audience. The major support of the movie is it’s technicality  cinematography and editing and Vijay Kumar’s acting. Even though Vijay Kumar’s acting backed the movie but his emotional breakdowns were not affecting the audience because of it’s lack of solid screenplay.

At first, it’s hard to grasp what is happening but after several jumps, one gets a hold of it. The film deals with several sub-plots in the first half. Director Abbas R Rahmath built a solid first half with the hyperlink narrative. And the humour in the first half worked well and evoked laughter as well. However, the screenplay goes haywire in the second half as there is no storyline to follow only fights and betrayal.  Many fight sequences in the film fail to have a purpose. The love story between Vijay Kumar and Monisha Mohan Menon does not add any value to the story either. Monisha goes missing after one song.

You can’t help but appreciate the efforts of editor Kripakaran and cameraman Leon Britto for their excellent craftsmanship. The background score and music by Govind Vasantha have helped to improve the visuals. Saravanavel, Avinash Raghudevan, Kaarthekeyan Santhanam, and Vijay Kumar all give excellent performances that work well together in the movie.

Verdict: If “Fight Club” had prioritised the screenplay just as much as the technical components, it may have had a far greater impact.

Rating – 2.5/ 5