Written by Khalid Rehman, Sreeni Saseendran and Ratheesh Ravi, one of the important features remains the characterization of Jojo, who in many ways is the driving force of the drama. While the writing doesn’t solely choose to focus just on his journey, he is undeniably the catalyst in the drama. Jojo is a passive flirt, discreetly glancing away at his ‘girlfriend’ prospect Anupama (Nanda Nishanth) on the ferry, while sharing a comforting bond on the side with Sherin (Noila Francy). You can see that he isn’t as focused in his life – a trait that he supposedly absorbs from his father who is more interested in playing the piano as opposed to earning some actual money. Even his mother daydreams in broad daylight expecting the ‘men’ of her family to be useful, until Jojo comes up with a master plan to take up boxing as a sport (along with his friends), that would help him (and them) in securing grace marks in order to get admission in a college. Why boxing? Because it was a sport utilized in broad daylight on one of his friends to humble his ego!

There is a searing take on hyper-masculinity that is presented in the most affable way possible. For instance, the sport boxing is almost used as a trigger point for Jojo and the gang to look macho, and command the kind of respect that they demand from the world. But in reality, the only boxing that they practice is ‘One-Two’, a term coined by the gang on the solo movements that they are taught at the Alappuzha Gymkhana. But that doesn’t stop Jojo from boasting – in a scene with Anupama, he literally boasts of taking down the ferry conductor before smartly bailing out with an excuse. His fleeting eyes later zero in on Natasha (Anagha Ravi), a fellow boxer, whom he invites for his district level match in order to impress. In a scene much later, Jojo tries ‘coaching’ Natasha, only to be punched through his face before coyly excusing himself for the match. There are traces of masculinity that are explored through Jojo, with one instance being an anti-thesis of the same theme – you see Jojo literally developing cold feet while having a chance to plant a ‘surprise’ kiss on Anupama, much to the dismay of the latter.

Some of the other characters join in later on too – Kiran (Shon Joy), Christopher (Karthik), Deepak (Ganapathi Poduval) and Joshua (Lukman Avran), only to form a team that eats together and trains hard together. Of the group, Joshua is the coach who is seemingly strict but hardly a character that you would expect to make the underdogs win. In fact, he seamlessly forms a part of the gang too, only for Team Alappuzha (as a group) to participate in the State Championship. It is here that the writing beats all the stereotypes of the sports genre. The gaze that the writers choose to exploit is that of unpredictability of life, and not necessarily sports. As a result, there aren’t any miracles that transpire in the ring, even though you see an individual arc and growth in almost every character. There is an underlying stream of humour that accompanies the narrative through – in a scene, you see Jojo having to fight a bout in a category way above his body weight because he indulged in an unscheduled eating session. In another scene just before the first fight, you see Team Alappuzha really pumping up an anthem while sending their first man to fight, only for its intensity to lower after every bout. This, while the audience literally picks up the anthem while cheering for them at the end, and hilariously so!

In many ways, the drama also reminded me of Khalid Rahman’s other film Thallumaala (2022), that literally was a brawl within a brawl within a brawl. Here, it remained a bout within a bout within a bout that did not necessarily have a structure to it. In fact, it literally broke the grammer of filmmaking but making it appear to be casual and unstructured – you didn’t know what the stakes were, you didn’t know how powerful (or not) the opponents were, you didn’t know where this drama would lead to. Yet, you were always invested in the goofy underdog story that literally did pack a punch only to spread out on the streets at the end, again hilariously so. And by the time it ended, you realised two things in tandem – that it wasn’t so much the results that the makers were going for, it also wasn’t specifically a coming of age drama or a sports drama. Weirdly, it was all of the above where the ‘king’ was infact the ‘kingmaker’, with one of the characters unlocking a new journey of success along with the consistent theme of unity and friendship that has a solid payoff. That for me stood out in a screenplay that was willing to look beyond the stereotypes of the genre, and eventually delivering a knockout!