Fight Club review: A deep dive into the nitty gritty of North Chennai

Through Fight Club, director Abbas A Rahmath tells a complex but compelling story that captures the difficult state of affairs in North Chennai.

The film has an intense story as its soul. It is evident that the story could have been written by someone who has experienced first-hand the hope, the betrayal, and the trauma that youngsters from the region who are desperate to get ahead in life experience to this day.

To the untrained eye or to those who do not care to look deep enough, Abbas A Rahmath’s Fight Club may well come across as just another film with meaningless violence.

But in reality, it is a film crafted with painstaking precision. The filmmaker has put his heart and soul into this film, which can be called as much an explosive action entertainer as it is a revenge drama.

Synopsis

Benji, short for Benjamin (Kartheekeyan Santhanam), is an altruist from North Chennai. He and his friend Razzaq (Vada Chennai Anbu) look to mentor and guide young boys from his region.

Despite the man being unable to realise his dream of accomplishing great things in his chosen sport or gaining employment under the sports quota, Benji becomes a guide to other young boys desperately looking to use their sporting skills to better their difficult lives.

With poverty often forcing them into a life of crime, the boys practically have nobody to give them a helping hand to get out of the quagmire.

Benji is aware that there are many people — from politicians to criminals who peddle drugs — who are exploiting the helplessness of the boys from the region. So, he decides to turn to mentor and guide the boys to better lives.

While Benji is like his dad, doing what he can for the boys in the slums, his brother Joseph (Avinash Raghudevan) is the exact opposite.

Joseph is a manipulative opportunist who will stop at nothing to further his interests. Smoking weed and peddling drugs, Joseph, much to the disgust of Benji, is hand in glove with a notorious criminal from the region named Kiruba (Shankar Thas).

Benji repeatedly warns his brother not to hang out with the drug peddler Kiruba, but Joseph pays no heed to his words. At one point, Kiruba, who peddles drugs using school children in the region, decides to start a new venture involving drugs.

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Only ray of hope gone

When Benji warns Kiruba and Joseph to stop all their illegal activities, the criminals decide to get rid of him.

Together, they murder Benji, the only source of help for the boys in the region. Kiruba escapes punishment by making Joseph his scapegoat.

Joseph, who gets sentenced for Benji’s murder, gets released from prison several years later. He seethes with rage and is on the lookout for revenge. However, he knows he stands no chance against Kiruba, who is now a powerful politician.

Just like how Kiruba used him to further his interests and career, Joseph looks for a scapegoat who can be manipulated into taking revenge for him. His eyes fall on Selva (Vijay Kumar), a hot-headed but immensely talented sportsperson whose career as a footballer ended after Benji’s death.

How he manipulates Selva to take his revenge on Kiruba is what Fight Club is all about.

Analysis

Abbas A Rahmath’s need to tell this story is understandable. However, he doesn’t do it as elegantly and efficiently as possible.

Had the editing been tighter, the story could have been more intense. In fact, the first half ambles along, and it is only just before the interval that the story actually begins to pick up pace.

But having said that, the plot is an intricate and difficult one to narrate. A certain degree of latitude must be permitted to the director for even choosing to narrate such a complex plot.

The second half of the film is just a delight to watch. It is intense, with several significant developments taking place, minute by minute.

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Performances

Fight Club has some impressive performances to offer.

Vijay Kumar, who impressed audiences with his performances in Uriyadi (2016) and Uriyadi 2 (2019), delivers a neat and commendable performance in this one.

Shankar Thas as Kiruba, Avinash Raghudevan as Joseph and Kartheekeyan Santhanam as Benji come up with excellent performances.

Avinash, in particular, is outstanding as the conniving, cool criminal who keeps his rage in check while luring hot-headed unsuspecting youngsters to their doom.

Cinematographer Leon Britto’s work is simply exceptional. In one action scene, the camera follows Selva as he races to save his friends from being cut down by their opponents. The stunt is just mind-blowing. Leon Britto must have literally bent his back to shoot this film, and full marks to him for his effort.

Govind Vasantha’s music is fantastic, but the music director must stop occasionally using Ilaiyaraaja’s hit tracks in his films. Govind Vasantha uses the music of the hit number “En Jodi Manja Kuruvi” from Vikram in some places in Fight Club.

Final take

In all, Fight Club is an intense film that is bound to impress you if you can patiently pay attention to the intricate details of the plot and add them all up to see the bigger picture.

(Views expressed here are personal.)