Cup movie review: Mathew Thomas, Basil Joseph’s sports drama contains all essential ingredients but lacks a clear recipe

A beloved sport? Check. A protagonist from a working-class family? Check. ‘Comedic’ dialogues centred around the sport? Check. A powerful person bent on ruining the protagonist’s career? Check. A legendary player who enters the scene to mentor the hero, providing motivation and training them for the final match? Check. A climactic final match where the hero starts at rock bottom, only to make a predictable comeback? Check. A cohesive script with other heartfelt and inspiring moments seamlessly tied together? Well… that’s where Cup falls short.

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For late teen Nidhin Babu aka Kannan (Mathew Thomas), the biggest dream is to win the Idukki district badminton tournament, securing the cup and paving the way to the U-17 championships. His best friend Bineesh (Karthik Vishnu) is always by Kannan’s side, along with his supportive family: his father Babu (Guru Somasundaram), mother (Thushara Pillai) and sister (Mrinalini Susan George). Another dream of Kannan’s is to confess his love to Anna (Riya Shibu), a fellow badminton player who also attends the same church as him. Although Kannan receives, whatever the situation be, ample care and aid from Bineesh’s brother Raneesh (Basil Joseph) and other friends too, an unexpected incident derails his hopes of winning the cup. However, he still manages to grow closer to Anna. But life gives him a second chance and he gets to train under international player Sandhya (Namitha Pramod) for another shot at the championship. Nonetheless, personal struggles begin to affect his performance, leaving him uncertain whether he will ever lift the trophy.

Cup begins with a misstep that could have easily been avoided. At the outset, we hear Kannan’s voiceover revealing that his biggest goal in life is to win the aforementioned title, immediately giving away the climax and the central conflict. Had his ambition to win the cup been introduced later, it would have managed to invoke more interest in viewers and also leave them wondering if he would face other conflicts too. Immediately after this, we are taken to a familiar church setting where the characters deliver cliched lines like, “Where is your son?” “He’s gone to [this place].” At the church, on Bineesh’s advice, Kannan approaches Anna to ask for her number, only to be met with the ultra-cliche response of her giving him her father’s number instead.

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As the film progresses, it becomes clear that Cup is packed with either outdated or cringeworthy lines. In fact, dialogues are the movie’s sole focus, with scenes crafted mainly to give characters a reason to speak. Much like decades-old Malayalam movies, Cup also uses a character with a disability for ‘comic’ relief and whenever the movie runs out of random dialogues, someone will make fun of this character’s habit of talking loudly — due to his hearing impairment — just to fill in the odd gaps.

Though the movie tries to follow the classic “poor boy meets rich girl” formula, it fails to explain why or how Anna fell for Kannan in the first place. That said, this soon becomes a minor issue compared to the other bigger worries in the movie. One such problem is the tired jokes, like when Kannan’s father says his son’s dream is to become a famous “Shuttle” player like Sania Mirza, his friend ‘corrects’ him by pointing out that “Sania isn’t a Shuttle player, she plays Badminton”.

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In some scenes — like the kitchen conversation between Babu and his daughter Geethu wherein the former advises his daughter to learn cooking — the characters exchange random lines, only for the scene to abruptly cut, leaving viewers puzzled about its purpose. To make matters worse, Akhilesh Latharaj and Denson Durom’s script is weighed down by lifeless, subpar dialogues. In addition to the too many “Good mornings” and “Thank yous,” the lines also come across as hollow, much like the rest of the screenplay. Often, the only way to know what emotion the audience is supposed to feel is through composer Shaan Rahman’s background score.

There are also utterly baffling moments in the movie, such as Raneesh delivering an emotional speech to Bineesh after the latter is hospitalised for excessive drinking, right after the entire scene at the clinic was presented as ‘humorous’. In another scene, a student (Anikha Surendran) at Sandhya’s academy asks her about a famous match in which she managed to win the next two sets after losing the first against a player, wondering how she managed that, Sandhya pauses briefly and simply says, “Badminton is a tactical game,” but never actually explains the tactic to her. What even? Later in the film, when Kannan is devastated by his poor performance, Sandhya finally reveals the strategy — something that could have easily been shared much earlier and might have helped him avoid his struggles. Cup also attempts to insert a few ‘motivational’ lines, in a desperate attempt to have a moment like Shah Rukh Khan’s “Sattar Minute” in Chak De! India (2007), but they too fail to make an impact.

Although Mathew Thomas does some justice to his character, there also are numerous instances where his performance feels contrived. Basil Joseph, moving away from his usual comedic roles, has handled the serious one in Cup well. (Image: Cup Movie/Instagram)

While it’s not necessary to strictly follow Chekhov’s gun principle, the makers of Cup could have at least avoided placing so much focus on Danny (Althaf Manaf), who is shown as someone who dislikes Kannan and has feelings for Anna; mainly because this character ends up having no real significance to the story.

From placing the interval block at the start of a crucial match and then starting the second half by jump-cutting to several days later — offering only a few flashback shots to help the audience piece together what happened — to the underwhelming handling of Anil Antony’s (Jude Anthany Joseph) character — despite being introduced with significant hype, making viewers expect him to be the JK Sharma (Jackie Shroff) to Kannan’s Michael “Bigil” Rayappan (Vijay) — Cup suffers from extremely poor writing throughout. Director Sanju, at the same time, fails to improve the situation and with DOP Nikhil S Praveen, he simply captures what’s written in the script, without adding any creative enhancement.

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Although Mathew Thomas does some justice to his character, there also are numerous instances where his performance feels contrived. Karthik Vishnu, however, delivers a neat portrayal. Basil Joseph, moving away from his usual comedic roles, has handled the serious one in Cup well. Unfortunately, even if one wishes to observe Guru’s portrayal of Babu, the poor dubbing makes it nearly impossible. Thushara Pillai can be mentioned as the only other actor who manages to provide something worthwhile to the movie.

Cup movie cast: Mathew Thomas, Basil Joseph, Namitha Pramod, Guru Somasundaram, Anikha Surendran
Cup movie director: Sanju V Samuel
Cup movie rating: 1 star