''Dhoni Kabadi Kuzhu'' () is a 2018 Indian

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

sports drama film written and directed by P. Iyyappan on his directorial debut. The film stars Abhilash and

Leema Babu Leema Babu is an Indian actress who has appeared in Malayalam and Tamil language films. Career Lima made her acting debut as the younger version of Navya Nair's character in the Tamil film, ''Rasikkum Seemane'' (2010), before appearing as Bha ...

in the main lead roles. The film is based on the clash of two sports

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

kabaddi Kabaddi is a contact team sport. Played between two teams of seven players, the objective of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their ...

. The film had its theatrical release on 7 December 2018 and received extremely negative reviews from the critics. The film was described as an awful discredit to the sport of kabaddi.

Synopsis

Tharani (Abhilash) and his friends who are die ardent fans of

MS Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian former international cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is also the curren ...

, do nothing for a living except for playing

gully cricket Backyard cricket, Bat ball, street cricket, beach cricket, corridor cricket, garden cricket, box cricket (if the ground is short) referred to as gully cricket in the Indian subcontinent, is an informal ''ad hoc'' variant of the game of cricket, ...

in their local ground. On one day they realized that their playground has been sold to a local goon/gangster and had to reclaim it by paying whopping Rs3 lakhs within a space of 10 days. However they couldn't afford to pay the entire money as they were unable to collect the adequate amounts of money. They decide to take part in a kabaddi match to win the prize money.

Cast

* Abhilash as Tharani *

* S. Nandakumar * Rishi * C. N. Prabhakaran * Thenali * Yogesh * Sivaraj * Senthil * Velmurugan * Telephone Mani * Ashok * Azhagappan * Desingu Raja * Saranya * Vijay Gautham * E. R. Pugazh * Vijith Saravanan * Nivetha * Sakthivel Murugan * Kantha * Prabhakaran * Appasamy * Srimathi * Naveen Shankar * Peter * Thendral Sasikumar

Production

The film was announced by debutant director P. Iyyappan who served as former associate of director A. Venkatesh. The film title was also inspired from the life of Dhoni.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack was composed by Roshan Joseph. *"Kannal Iva Kavitha Pesura" - Gunasekaran *"Apulla Apulla" - Roshan Joseph C. J. *"Ithu Jaikkapora" -

Velmurugan Velmurugan is a Tamil film playback singer. He is known for folk songs including Madura in ''Subramaniapuram'' and Aadungada in ''Naadodigal'' and Otha Sollala in ''Aadukalam''. He considers being called by James Vasanthan James Vasanthan i ...

*"Thadaigalai Udaithidu" -

Mukesh Mohamed Mukesh Mohamed (earlier called Mukesh) is an Indian playback singer who is known for his mass-style singing. As a versatile singer, he sings melody, folk and gana songs. He has sung more than 500 film songs in various Indian languages. He has also ...

*"Iva Ooru Kallakuruchi" - V. V. Prasanna

Reception

''Times of India'' wrote " Despite its honourable intention of glorifying kabadi, Dhoni Kabadi Kuzhu is an amateurish exercise that struggles to keep us hooked, mainly due to the bland performances are bland, and the flat filmmaking". ''Indian Express'' wrote "For a film which talks at length about the pride of Tamil and kabaddi, Dhoni Kabadi Kuzhu ends up being a discredit to both due to its incredibly careless writing and making." ''News Today'' wrote "It is honourable that the makers have tried to give their best and build up a good image for our native sport, kabaddi. But, it is sad that though their attempts are praiseworthy, they have botched up a bit in the execution. The film is dragging in the first half and the humour, if any, fails to make us laugh on most occasion. Things get better in the second half though as the movie gets in on the kabaddi action. But what is funny is that the serious and tense moments that the director hopes to make us sit on the edge of the seat, do the exact opposite and make us laugh".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=9128216 2018 films 2010s Tamil-language films 2010s Indian films 2010s sports drama films Indian sports drama films 2018 directorial debut films 2018 drama films Films about cricket in India Kabaddi in India