Kennedy Club Movie Review: Cliched & Mediocre Execution Makes This Sports Drama A No Winner!

Director Suseenthiran and Sasikumar's Kennedy Club has already garnered decent attention by upping the expectations with its promising trailer and sneak-peek. Belonging to the genre sports-politics, increases inquisitiveness into the movie further.

Story

The movie picks off with Savarimuthu (Bharathiraja), an ex-army person who toils a lot to earn money to train underprivileged kabaddi players, who are a bunch of talented girls. An ailing Savarimuthu is forced to discontinue his passionate job. His old student Muruganandam (Sasikumar), who works for Railways under sports quota, comes to his teacher's rescue.

As expected, we have an antagonist (Murali Sharma,) a wicket chief selector of the sport for the Indian team, who tries to plot hard against Muruganandam-Savarimuthu's underdog team. How Muruganandam fights against all odds and wins the battle forms the rest of the plot.

Positives

Girls' Performance
Attention To Detail To The Sport
Real-life Kabaddi Players Inclusion

Negatives

Mediocre Execution
Clichéd And Over The Board Sequences
Key Characters' Unconvincing Performances

Performances

Sasikumar should ideally have been one of the major takeaways of the movie, but sadly, his performance falls flat. Neither his physique (as he claims to be a coach) nor his body language (carrying the same mundane expressions from his earlier films) sways the audience.
Bharathiraja is old and tiring. Director Suseenthiran had earlier cast Bharathiraja in his previous movie Pandiyanaadu and might have repeated him here for the goodwill reason. It's time for Bharathiraja to hang up his boots as he doesn't look all that convincing.

Murali Sharma as the antagonist is pale, weak and unimpressive. This makes the characterisation, the clash between the good and the bad, look very insignificant and paltry.

Girls who have donned the role of kabaddi players deserve appreciation for their performance. They are energetic, appealing and satisfying. Including real-life kabaddi players have worked well in favour of the movie as there is more attention to detail to the sport.

Technical Aspects

Usually, Suseenthiran grips his audience through his screenplay, and most of his previous movies have worked in the same way. Vennela Kabaddi Kuzhu, had the same sports genre and had worked well for its nativity and realistic portrayal. However, Kennedy Club deviates from being a genuine attempt because of some superficial dialogues and clichéd sequences.

D Imman should be lauded for his background score as he elevates some ordinary scenes with his music. His Kabaddi Kabaddi song is already a chartbuster. Gurudev's camerawork is just okay and has nothing much to rave about.

Final Verdict

Kennedy Club could have been one more "must-watch" sports-based movies of Tamil Cinema if not for its clichés and disengaging screenplay at certain places. Can give this flick a skip.