Champion Movie Review

Champion is a film that’s been in the making for quite some time and features Roshan Meka in his second outing after his 2022 debut. Anaswara Rajan, another promising talent from Kerala, makes her Telugu debut with this film. With a strong technical crew and a reputed banner like Swapna Cinema backing it, Champion seemed well-positioned to become a solid period drama. But does it live up to the expectations it created? Let’s check it out.

Setup:

Set in 1948, post-Independence, Michael Williams (Roshan) is an aspiring football player from Secunderabad in the state of Hyderabad, ruled by the Nizams. Working in a bakery, his only aim is to go to England and become a successful football star. When he finally gets an opportunity to be part of Manchester football club in London, his father’s past becomes a hurdle, preventing him from entering the country. Desperate to reach England, he agrees to deliver illegal cargo of guns for a flight pilot. During this journey, he ends up in a village called Bairanpally, where the villagers are actively fighting against the rule of the Nizams and the Razakars. What happens in this village? How does Michael get drawn into their struggle? And will he achieve his dream? These questions form the rest of the story.

Technicalities:

Maddie’s cinematography is good and suits the film’s setting well. Editing by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao is below par. There are over-lengthy scenes which could have easily been shorter. The war episodes could have also been crisper. Mickey J Meyer delivered a chartbuster with Gira Gira, and it felt equally good on screen as well. Other songs were okay. The background score is decent, though it could have been more impactful.

Swapna Cinema, as usual, went all in for this movie. They made sure everything looked authentic to the 1940s, and we can see that effort on screen. Director Pradeep Advaitham had a decent plot to work with, but the emotional depth required for this kind of film never comes through. The screenplay is sluggish, with events unfolding at a very leisurely pace.

Performances:

Roshan Meka looked macho on screen and gave his best performance-wise. While his character arc feels uneven at times, he deserves credit for his effort. However, his Hyderabadi/Telangana dialect throughout the movie felt contemporary rather than authentic to the period. Anaswara Rajan delivers a good performance in her Telugu debut. While her attempt to dub for herself is appreciable, but unfortunately it doesn’t suit the character. While the entire village speaks in a Telangana dialect, her dialogues carry a noticeable Malayalam accent. It’s surprising that this wasn’t corrected before release. Nandamuri Kalyan Chakravarthi’s return to the big screen is a mixed experience. He looked fine as the village leader, but the authority and command required for that role are missing in his dialogue delivery. He didn’t have any scene that made an impact or announced his presence strongly. Abhay and Racha Ravi got decent screen time as revolting villagers and made good use of it. Kay Kay Menon and the other antagonists didn’t create much impact either.

Positives:

Roshan’s looks and performance
Gira Gira song
Production values and effort

Negatives:

Emotionless and impact-less characters
Slow and uneven screenplay
Lengthy runtime
Dubbing issues
Weak writing and direction

Analysis:

Champion was promoted as a period action-love drama with a sports backdrop, but the film turns out to be something quite different. This disconnect between marketing and the actual content works against the film and affects the viewing experience.

The movie starts decently by establishing the sports backdrop, then shifts into the usual introduction of various characters, including the heroine and others. While this setup was necessary, it feels flat. Everything keeps going in a loop, and there are no particular highs or moments that create emotion at any point in the first half until the interval block. Gira Gira was a breather in the first half with its soothing music and picturization.

When the conflict opens up in the second half, there isn’t much that changes. It’s the same loop without any impact. Everything stays at a surface level. We don’t feel the empathy needed for such themes. For example, in the movie Rajanna, which had a similar conflict, we feel empathetic towards the struggle of the villagers. Here, even those struggles weren’t shown properly in this movie. The antagonists should have been ruthless, but they felt powerless. All this made the viewing experience boring. There weren’t any bad scenes in the movie, just that none of them created any impact whatsoever. Even in the finale war episode, Racha Ravi’s moment with the Firangi had more impact than Roshan’s entry on a horse with guns. A little more effort to tighten the screenplay and show depth in the core plot would have made things better.

Overall, Champion is a sincere effort on paper, but it completely falters when it comes to execution. If you enjoy period dramas, you can give it a try, but only with very modest expectations.

Final Verdict : Good intent, weak execution

Rating: 2.25/5

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