Liger is a film that tells the story of Liger, a poor man whose father dies during a MMA National Championship. Liger has a stutter and super-human like fighting capabilities. A MMA coach at a gym takes him under his wing so he can train to be a fighter. Meanwhile, Tanya (Ananya Panday) enters his life and causes conflict amongst himself, his family, and his gym.

Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Panday, Mike Tyson, Ramya Krishna, Ronit Roy

Director: Puri Jagannadh

Ok…. whew. Where do we even begin on this one?

Liger is a Hindi and Telegu film that tells the story of Liger, a natural born fighter and his journey to becoming a MMA Superstar. Raised fatherless and very poor, we are welcomed with a unrealistic fight scene where Liger throws around 20 opponents in Kung-Fu like style and delivers deadly blows. Afterwards, his mother takes him to an MMA gym to train, and it is revealed that Liger lost his father who died in the MMA Championship from a deadly knockout. The gym owner takes him in and makes him an errand boy, having to clean the mats and the gym. Made fun of for his stutter, the other fighters at the gym do not take him seriously, and neither does an opposing dojo. He fights his entire gym to prove his worth and begins his training journey.

Meanwhile, Tanya, played by Ananya Panday spots an interest for Liger after seeing his impressive abilities. Tanya is a vain social influencer who spends her time at the club “drinking her problems away” and at Hindi temples taking her clothes off for Instagram posts. She is also the sister of Sanju, a star fighter from the rival dojo and a massive bully. He opposes all members of Ligers dojo and even brutally beats up a member who he thought was hanging around his sister.

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After Tanya finds out about Liger’s speech impediment, she immediately wants nothing to do with him. This makes Liger angry and train hard for the MMA qualifier for India and ultimately, for Las Vegas. Mike Tyson makes a cameo in this movie for a role I will not spoil.

Like I said in the beginning, where do I even begin with this film?

This movie was a poor attempt to depict any sort of realistic version of MMA. The fight scenes looked like Kung Fu. Liger snaps a guys spine over his knee… The special effects for all of these scenes were so outdated you would have thought you were watching the Matrix. No, not Resurrections, the 1999 film.

Vijay Deverakonda’s depiction of a stutter was not only really hard to watch, but made his character seem that he had a mental handicap rather than a speech issue. The acting on this aspect was so painful to watch and added nothing to the film. Honestly would have loved to maybe see Liger be someone with very low confidence or a depressed man. I think these traits may have complemented the story better than his awful impersonation of a stutter.

Also, let’s talk about misogyny. The only female role in this movie that was not depicted as a vain social media obsessed shallow human being was Liger’s mom played by Ramya Krishna. The owner of the gym had one rule for Liger and that was “no women” since all they do is cause the men at the gym to not focus. I am not sure if their counter to this was to have an all women fight scene against Liger, but like I said, this film has no woman playing a role with any depth.

Mike Tyson has a cameo. I don’t know what much else to say about it. His character was given a pretty bad script. It was honestly crazy to watch a movie take place in the US with a semi-hollywood actor and it still feel like a cheesy Bollywood flop. I give that to the direction team and writers.

My last bit is I had no clue what this love interest was even about. Not sure why Liger feels he has to save the shallow shell of a human that is Tanya. But he does so anyways and he even says he cannot see his future without her. Simp.

With a script cheesier than Wisconsin (and my jokes), unrealistic fight scenes, and butchered portrayals, it is my duty to tell you that this movie was a total flop. The only potential redeeming quality of this movie were some of the MMA scenes because all of a sudden the technique kinda showed up in this, but at the same time, we watch Liger grab a guy by one arm and spin him like a lasso…