Director Suseenthiran is back with another sports drama. After Vennilla Kabbadi Kuzhu, Jeeva and Kennedy Club, Champion from his stable speaks about football and how it is the passion of youngsters in North Chennai. Interestingly he has packaged it as revenge drama with commercial elements at right mix.
Though it is about football and North Chennai, it is strikingly different from Bigil and Jada, that had similar backdrops. With a newcomer Vishwa in the lead, Champion has romance, action, anger besides speaking in-depth about the sports.
The movie features Vasavi, Narain, Manoj Bharathi, Stunt Siva among others in the cast. Music is by Aroll Corelli.
Jones (Vishwa) wants to make a career out of football. He wants to represent India and make it big. However his mother Jaya (Vasavi) wants him to focus on academics. She is against him taking to the ground. Jones hides from her mother about his passion fr game and decides to pursue his ambition.
A flashback reveals that Jones’ father Gopinath Dhiraviyam (Manoj Bharathiraja) was killed in 7s football years ago. Situation compels Jones to play for a club coached by Santha (Narain). Through his coach, Jones comes to know about his father’s death. He is utterly shocked when it is revealed to him a local politician Dhanasekhar (Stunt Siva) was the killer. Now Jones has to choose between football and revenge.
Vishwa as aspiring football player had done a decent job. He has enough opportunities to showcase his acting skills in his very first movie. In the latter part, when he goes on revenge mode, he does it better.
After Kaithi, Narain gets an interesting character here and he has given his best. Mrinalini and Manoj Bharathiraja does justice to their characters. Aroll Corell’s music is worth a mention. Sujith Sarang’s camera captures the game of football well.
All sad, Champion is a sports revenge drama that ends up without a punch.