Blue Star Review: A Few Maiden Overs Aside, This Anti-Caste Sports Drama Hits Enough Boundaries

Writer and director: S Jayakumar

Cast: Ashok Selvan, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, Keerthi Pandian, Prithvirajan, Bagavathi Perumal

Available in: Theatres

Duration: 166 minutes

It’s only the first month of 2024 and Tamil cinema has already made films with strong political statements and dared to go to spaces not often explored. If Captain Miller talks about how an oppressed community in the pre-independence era had to fight two battles for freedom, Blue Star, set in the late 90s, shares the same emotion. It digs deeper into the societal structures to lend us a newer and more complex perspective. 

There is no dearth of cricket movies in Kollywood — if Kanaa (2018) and Jeeva (2014) were vocal about the politics in sports, biopics like 800 displayed the realities of it. Even otherwise, many sports dramas including Sarpatta Parambarai (2021), Bigil (2019), Badri (2001), Ethir Neechal (2013) and others have not shied away from showing the different forms of discrimination. So what does Blue Star offer differently? 

The film introduces us to two youngster groups in Arakkonam, a suburb of Chennai. One of them is called the colony people (colony pasanga), while the other is called the village area people (oor theru pasanaga) and the latter belongs to the upper strata. Ranjith (Ashok Selvan) leads the colony cricket team, Blue Star, while Rajesh (Shanthnu Bhagyaraj) is the captain of the village area team, Alpha Boys. This inherent division leads to discrimination. But when a person from the village group goes outside the village, he is suddenly no longer on top of the hierarchy and is at the receiving end of humiliation. The unpleasant side of his privilege and a question of identity slowly creep in. This strong perspective lays the foundation for the solid storytelling in Blue Star. The teams then try to come together to prove themselves and take on the league players in a bigger tournament.

Even before we begin to see their lives, Ranjith lets us know that he is not keen on playing for India. Instead, he wants to play for his colony and his team. He just wants to play cricket, while his father (an earnest Elango Kumaravel) wants him to land a good job by establishing his talent in sports. Their dreams are smaller because that’s all they want. But later we meet a very talented batsman, Bullet Babu, who is revered by everyone at the league level but doesn’t want to play for India either. Not that his dreams are small, but he doesn’t want to be looked down upon. “Epdiyum anga pona nammala velayaada vida maataanga (Anyway, they won’t let us play if we go there),” he says. This authenticity of the world and the questions it raises make Blue Star fresh and important.

The story might feel familiar but debutant director S Jayakumar crafts it in a way every conversation and character feels impactful. Take for instance, the family of Ranjith — his naive and talented brother Sam (Prithvi Rajan), his spiritual mother (Lizzie Antony) who quotes Bible verses to chide her sons and the supportive father. The film spends time showing us their distinct personalities and daily bickering that when you think of Ranjith, you just don’t limit him to cricket. You are eventually drawn to the world of Blue Star that feels so real.

The love story of Ranjith and Anandhi (an energetic Keerthi Pandian) too doesn’t feel forced. Anandhi is not just his love interest, she is someone who is equally fascinated by cricket and even points out the team’s faults. Interestingly, the first of the few cricket techniques discussed in the film is from Anandhi who asserts that the team’s fielding is weak owing to lack of communication.

There are other characters like Immanuel (Bagavathi Perumal) who leave an impact. Shanthnu’s Rajesh though is the one who undergoes so much transformation as he tries to find answers while struggling to let go of internal conditioning. In a way, he is Kalaiyarasan’s Arjun from Natchathiram Nagargiradhu (2022) but is more understanding and self-introspective. Shanthnu and Ashok Selvan effortlessly bring on screen the wavering emotions their characters feel; so much so that the first time they are on good terms, the moment feels so genuine. Ranjith and Rajesh may lead the film but every character owns the screen. In a sequence in the second half, Ranjith’s brother Sam takes centre stage and is celebrated for his cricketing skills; his love story too gets equal focus. When Bullet Babu thrashes the leads with his cricketing skills, the music in the background isn’t tense. Instead, it decides to celebrate him with the film’s theme music.

Like how North Madras got anthems like ‘Enga Ooru Madrasu’ and ‘Enga Yeriya’, Blue Star gives a peppy number ‘Arakkonam Style’, celebrating the culture of the town. Thamizh A. Azhagan’s camera, too, registers the town with the omnipresence of Ambedkar, the scorching sun, the temple ground and the intrinsic trains. Be it the visuals, the diegetic sounds or even our favourite ‘Railin Oligal’, the trains play an important role. The playground, without a doubt, is a character by itself and the camera zooms in and out, covers aerial views and goes as wide as possible, capturing the land and what it means to its people at different times.

But the film has its lows. An effervescent Anandhi goes missing after a point. And when she returns, the situation the lovers are in feels jarring, as if there is a scene or two that’s missing. There are logical flaws too. We of course want Rajesh and Ranjith to team up and win but there is little focus on how these teams mend their differences and how their practice sessions go. Even Anandhi’s points about their flawed fielding don’t get addressed. When Rajesh volunteers to help Ranjith meet Anandhi, someone asks Rajesh if he would do the same in case it was his sister’s lover. The question, probably even directed towards the viewers, is important. But what becomes of that? We see Rajesh deep in thoughts but what are his thoughts? There is a big issue within the team and it somehow gets resolved but how? For a film that keeps everything real, in the second half, the film keeps pushing us away, shielding the intimate micro-emotions the characters feel. So when the film ends, there are a lot of 'whys' and 'hows' that bother us. However, even if a sense of incompleteness lingers as you walk out of the theatre, the realistic and perspective storytelling triumphs.

In the very beginning, we get a moment where a talented man from the colony tries to teach a technique to a student in a big cricket academy. While the young boy is curious and happy to learn, this old man keeps looking around in fear even as he gives some important insights. And Blue Star reminds us repeatedly that the boy’s innocence and acceptance is what we, as a society, often rob and are robbed of.