A lower-caste boxer struggles to make his mark on the boxing world, in the highly anticipated film from Anurag Kashyap.

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Special Presentations

The Brawler

Anurag Kashyap

Vital, insightful, and thoroughly cinematic, Anurag Kashyap's The Brawler follows in the tradition of the great boxing films of the past. But the director of Gangs of Wasseypur gives his take on the sweet science a boldly Indian spin. The set-up offers the genre's familiar underdog hero, but this film lands a satisfying punch against the injustices and hypocrisies that keep India's sporting underdogs exactly where they are.

Shravan (Vineet Kumar Singh) is a lower-caste boxer with a tempered edge, struggling to leave his mark and making the case with his fists that he deserves a chance to compete. His career is threatened after he delivers a nasty right hook to the face of Bhagwan — his employer, the local kingpin, and the top boxing promoter in the region. Following this melee, Bhagwan does everything he can to stop Shravan from ascending up the ranks, including preventing him from pursuing the woman he has fallen in love with, Sunaina. Bhagwan will go to any length to punish and humiliate Shravan. But what he doesn't count on is Shravan's tough-mindedness. He's been an underdog all his life and will stop at nothing to go all the way to the Indian National Boxing Championship.

Based on a true story, The Brawler is an enthralling, action-packed tale about corruption and crime in Indian sports. But at the heart of Kashyap's narrative is a smart and complex love story anchored by Zoya Hussain's Sunaina.

CAMERON BAILEY

Screenings

Sat Sep 09

Scotiabank 7

Press
9:30pm
Sun Sep 10

Elgin Theatre

Regular
9:30pm
Tue Sep 12

Scotiabank 4

Regular
3:45pm
Wed Sep 13

Scotiabank 11

Press
1:00pm
Sun Sep 17

Scotiabank 3

Regular
12:00pm