Being stereotyped as the hero who acts in remake movies is a thing of a past, he showed his mettle with Thanioruvan and as Abdul Kalam says “It’s not the first victory that matters, the second one is more important otherwise people will call the first one as a fluke”. The quote matches Jayam Ravi’s career quite well, for after being a straightforward officer in Thanioruvan, he plays a freakishly raw boxer in Bhooloham. The movie which was stuck in limbo for some time finally hits the theatres today. Aided by Trisha, Nathan Jones, Ponvannan the movie is directed by Kalyankrishnan with Srikanth Deva taking care of the music department.

Kollywood has by far embraced the sports theme pretty well, and it’s a healthy sign to see movies that revolve around Hurdles, Boxing not compromising on the emotional quotient too. Boxing is not the only fight in the movie; the director has done enough research to show how big corporate companies thrive on petty community clashes, advertisements and the means to reap monetary benefits. Jayam Ravi is Bhooloham a boxer; would be hard to call him a boxer, given his style of dancing into the ring, pulling down the trouser of his opponent in a fight, puts up big flex posters around the town with freakish punch dialogues. The Bhooloham walks around with arrogance and vengeance that comes out of a community clash a decade ago.

Through the first half the director takes time to show the multiple characters in the movie, the reasoning behind the anger, the little heat between two communities elevated to the next level by a sports channel run by Prakash Raj and then the all-important Boxing Championship. The director sets a perfect milieu for the fight by blending the rightful ingredients and as we wait for the big fight, it’s hard not to ignore how corporate companies use their marketing skills to mint money out of every available slot. Prakash Raj pulls of a ripper as the CEO of a sports channel who keeps looking at every single opportunity he can to lure advertisers by spicing up the heat on the local Boxing community.

The movie takes a U turn when Bhooloham knocks out his opponent Arumugam and realizes how dangerously violent Boxing can be. Nathan Jones, the huge Troy star walks in through the second half and deserves a giant size pat on the back for not just displaying his boxing skills, but getting draped in a traditional Dhoti, dressing up as a woman and all the lighter moments he made us laugh. Through the movie, Trisha plays a responsible fiancée of Jayam Ravi, a role without duet songs or yawning running behind the tree moments, although the extra glam quotient could have been avoided.

With all the elements of making a blockbuster, somehow in the process of narration, things go awry and the director loses control through the second half with too many predictable and repetitive sequences. The first half with Jayam Ravi’s rugged North Madras style depiction takes the front seat, however the screenplay gets a lot of disturbances in the second half with Bhooloham-George(Nathan Jones) rivalry. Music is probably one of the biggest letdowns with Srikanth Deva offering nothing out of the ordinary neither in the training sequences nor during the fights. A sports movie is usually helped by some inspirational songs or BGM, sadly the background score is very mediocre and ripped off from many Hollywood movies. More importance could have been given in showing Jayam Ravi’s training techniques, given the heavyweight training the actor has gone through. That said, Sathish does some good work behind the lens in capturing the gritty nature of North Madras and especially the fight sequences.

The climax fight has been choreographed rather well, yet again the narration leading upto it and very ordinary music does not give the much required adrenaline rush that a sporting sequence needs. One other biggest pluses from the movie is the casting department; after some good performances from Jayam Ravi, Trisha and Prakash Raj, Arpit ( who played Duruyodhana in Mahabarata serial), Nathan Jones and Ponvannan too do justice to their characters.

Verdict : All said, the movie is a good entertainer of sorts, watch it for Jayam Ravi’s heavy duty thara local gimmicks and some guaranteed good boxing sequences.