Liger Movie Review: Balamani (Ramya Krishnan) names her son 'Liger' (Vijay Deverakonda) because she thinks herself of a tigress and her dead husband as a lion. If only she had googled about Liger, she would have realised that ligers have more health issues than its feline parents, and are generally sterile, traits that might have gone against the celebration of brash masculinity of its protagonist. Unfortunately, the flawed, senseless nomenclature is the least of Liger's problems. Puri Jagannadh's bilingual film is a celebration of everything cringe. Liger Stars Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday Gorge on Gujarati Thali in Ahmedabad During Their Film's Promotions.

Liger wants to be a MMA champion like his father, and he and his mother has travelled from Karimnagar to Mumbai to train at a Bruce Lee Academy, which is run by Ronit Roy's coach. Sadly, the mention of a Bruce Lee Academy reminded of Ram Gopal Varma's Enter the Girl Dragon, and it's even sadder that Liger is just a more polished cringe-fest with more male cleavage.

Anyway, both his coach and his mother keep telling Liger to stay away from girls and focus on his fighting. 'Cos as per the coach, girls are distraction, and for the mother, the girls are the 'devil'. There is a scene where she even calls them younger sisters of temptresses Urvashi and Menaka. Feminism in Telugu cinema is an 'astatine' - the rarest material on Earth, which isn't much of a wonder considering Vijay Deverakonda's big-ticket recognition was Arjun Reddy (that gets a mention in Liger ofc).

So enter in Liger's life, his 'devil' in the form of Tanya (Ananya Panday), a rich, spoilt influencer who, in their first meeting, thinks he is someone who bodyshames her in the comments section of her posts. That aspect is never mentioned again, but I really need an answer. Why would she feel he is the same person? Does she think every male who has a 5-day stubble look the same?

Tanya's brother is Sanju, a rival MMA champion, who loses in the game of ferocity just with that name. She keeps saying her brother is Sanju, as if it is a threat and 'Sanju' is the kind of name that should strike terror in the hearts of others. Yup, 'Liger' now sounds better to hear in comparison.

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To cut the story short, Tanya immediately falls in love with Liger when she sees him beat down many of his academy mates, who used to hate him once, but now revere him after that beating. Who said violence is bad, when in movies, it wins you friends and gets you a girlfriend?

Liger does to Ananya Panday what I was worried Student of the Year 2 would have done to her (but doesn't) - it put the actress in a role so irritating that when Liger ran after her with a rod (a scene that is definitely problematic otherwise), I wanted to applaud. Tanya, in my opinion, is one of the most annoying female leads ever to grace the big screen joining the esteemed club that also contains the recent Ek Villain Returns' Aarvi and Rasika.

I don't think it is Ananya's fault in any manner, the writing involved in her character is simply bad rendering her into an attractive eye-candy but gives her zero redeeming qualities as a character, while the camera is obsessed with her midriff. Liger doesn't indulge into subtleties when it comes to having well-written female characters where it has the mother character shouting her every line, and the female lead simply irks you by opening her mouth. Liger Song Aafat: Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday’s Beach Romance Is Sizzling Hot in This Peppy Track (Watch Video).

Yeah, there is a scene where Liger gets beaten by a bunch of girls in Las Vegas. Feminism, yay? I would have given that point to the movie, if our hero didn't keep saying 'girls shouldn't fight this way if they want to be married' or asking them if he had left any of them pregnant and abandoned them. Just Puri things, I guess. Puri Jagannadh Called Out for iSmart Shankar's ‘Sexual Harassment’ Scene Featuring Ram Pothineni and Nabha Natesh Ahead of Liger Release.

Oh, I forgot. When speaking of subtleties, our Liger has a stutter, which in any other good, sensitive film, would have been an interesting layer given to a hero. However, here, it just allows plenty of opportunities for insult jokes, while Deverakonda struggles pretty hard to make it sound convincing and not turn the speech defect into unintentional comedy.

I also forget that Liger the movie is supposed to be about MMA fights, which it does have. Occasionally. However, the film hardly works as a sports drama, with the fight scenes merely coming across as opportunities to display VK in male buff glory, mostly contained in song montages. There is no tension, no stakes as, save for that brawl with female fighters, Liger easily comes out victorious from every dishoom!

Which brings us to the much publicised appearance of Mike Tyson, who in the film, plays Mark Anderson, a legend whom Liger reveres. If you think Tyson's cameo in The Hangover Part III was bad, then this beats that appearance hands down. If you think Sylvester Stallone's cameo on Kambakkht Ishq was horrid, then Tyson knocks that out with one punch. Definitely he is paid a lot of money for his role here - which also involves a bizarre callback to the time he bit off Evander Holyfield's ear - but no good input has been invested on what to do with him in the movie. Mike Tyson in Liger: Did You Know the Boxing Legend Had Already Made His Bollywood ‘Debut’ in a Sunny Deol and Shahid Kapoor-Starrer? (Watch Video).

I seriously don't know what to make of Liger. Under the guise of its MMA glory, the movie wants us to see itself as a flawed love story of a young, ambitious man with a disability and a seductress who could destroy him down. At least, the merely passable first half (but enjoyably cringey) tries to pitch it that way, but the terrible second half (that's unenjoyable cringe) undoes that and turns the movie into a unintentional embarrassment of riches, especially in the third act. Well, at least, the songs were catchy, even if their placement was mostly random.

Yay!

- Presentation Looks Good, Visually, Especially the Song Picturisation

- Deverakonda Looks Committed

Nay!

- Poor Writing and OTT Direction

- Supporting Characters Are Weakly Written

Final Thoughts

Liger is supposed to turn Vijay Deverakonda into the next Prabhas for Bollywood, and the actor is presented in all his glory here. However, VK's star-charisma couldn't win against the cringeness surrounding nearly every aspect of this film. Liger is a movie that knocks you out with its hammy performances (bar for poor Ronit Roy), OTT scene-renditions and bad writing.

Rating:1.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 26, 2022 01:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).