Start the week with a film: Why ‘Alappuzha Gymkhana' is and isn't about boxing
Out on Sony LIV after a blockbuster run in Kerala, Alappuzha Gymkhana revolves around the teenagers Jojo, Shanavas, DJ, Valuth and Cheruth. Only Shanavas has passed the 12th standard examination. Jojo (Naslen), the informal group leader, suggests getting into college through the sports quota. Why not boxing? How hard can landing punches be?
At the Alappuzha Gymkhana that offers boxing lessons, an attempt to get a discount flops. Will you muscles grow in instalments too, the manager wants to know.
The humour flows naturally and easily in Rahman's screenplay, co-written with Sreeni Saseendran. Alappuzha Gymkhana has the shooting-the-breeze quality that is often in found in the better Malayalam buddy dramas, but without the moralising or hand-wringing that is inserted into such films to give its characters a reality check.
Under the strict coach Anthony (Lukman Avaran), Jojo, Cheruth (Franco Francis) and Valuth (Sandeep Pradeep) become competent enough to participate in a district-level competition. Other boxers join the group, leading to new friendships and expanding Jojo's universe.
There's delightful camaraderie but also excellent displays of pugilistic skills as the competition gets underway. The adolescents look and sound credible as they size up their opponents.
The battles within the ring are highly convincing. Through the presence of female boxers, Alappuzha Gymkhana makes its points about redefining masculinity and acknowledging women in sports without shouting from the rooftops.
Ratheesh Ravi's hilarious dialogue is punchy without being in your face. They are delivered by an excellent cast, led from the front by Naslen, the actor from Home (2021) and Premalu (2024). Jojo is the kind of youthful dreamer whose journey towards finding his place within and beyond the ring is often side-tracked by women, other contestants and every available stimulus.
The contact sport of boxing becomes an apt metaphor for Jojo's evolution. Khalid Rahman draws connections between ambition and reality, landing jabs and taking blows on the chin, in a manner that appears easy-going but is always rigorously plotted and staged.
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