I am blown away by the ferocity of filmmaking in #BisonKaalamadan written and directed by @mari_selvaraj!
Astutely detailed with rich lived experiences and powerful performances in a sports biopic done right.
Dhurv Vikram and Pasupathi are exemplary as the father-sun duo.
The father’s phone call asking the son to continue playing—even when the odds are completely against him—personally inspired me. I was so moved I paused and sat in silence soaking the courage it gave me. Felt the same when the father fights the cops to let his son go play kabbadi for India. People we love can carry us through moments we’re not sure we can survive.
Mari, I doff my hat to you, brother!
Bravo @beemji, Sameer Nair, Deepak Seigal and Aditi Anand for a great production!
Watch it now on Netflix!
#Bison is brilliant. A rousing sports drama about grit, oppression, caste and what it takes to persevere. @mari_selvaraj takes us on a gut-wrenching journey that ends, as it must, in triumph and tears. Dhruv Vikram and Pasupathy are outstanding. I wept - a lot! #mustwatch
When @anupamahere & #DhruvVikram grab the mic magic happens! 🎤✨
A fun musical moment you didn’t see coming on @ChaaaatShow 😍🎶
Tune in & vibe along 👇
https://t.co/qcgMQwkxwY
#Bison
The wait is over… The roar begins today 💪🏼🔥#BlockbusterBison steps into the arena with your love and blessings ♥️
Witness the rise of #BISON on the big screen ✊🏼❤️🔥
#BisonTelugu Grand Release by #JagathambeFilms
#BisonKaalamaadan is seeing a solid upswing at the box office for 4 consecutive days: clocking 60K (Day 1) to 127K (Day 4) in BMS ticket sales👏🏼
The world of Bison breathes with life - its fields, rivers, sweat, and chants mirror the grit of its protagonist.
#DhruvVikram
#Bison: Humongous Growth in Box office Day by Day🔥
Pre Sales- 35.35K
Day 1- 59.97K
Day 2- 94.52K
Day 3- 110.68K
A Clean Blockbuster for DhruvVikram & MariSelvaraj 🏆
"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. It would make a great companion piece with #Bison." #Baradwajranganreview
Watch the complete REVIEW https://t.co/7fVj0oohdT exclusively on Galatta Plus YouTube channel!
@baradwajrangan#BisonKaalamaadan#DhruvVikram#MariSelvaraj #KarnanHelmer #AnupamaParameswaran #RajishaVijayan #Lal #Pasupathy #AnuragArora #ChandrasekarKoneru #AmeerSultan #AzhagamPerumal #HarithaMutharasan #Kalaiyarasan #HariKrishnan #MadhanKumarDhakshinamoorthy #Baradwajrangan #Baradwajranganinterviews #Galattaplus
Many thoughts on Bison Kaalamaadan:
A favourite moment for me in Bison is when Kittan seems to be regaining faith in the world. He’s been absorbed by someone from the supposed enemy faction, and for a while, there’s hope as he's playing kabaddi with them. But then, as always, something happens, and if he had any illusion that he’d ever be seen as an equal among them, it shatters instantly. All eyes are on him... eyes not just from today, but from generations before him. Eyes that have always stared at him from childhood. He’s asked to leave... and so, he's heartbroken... and he runs and runs. What else is he supposed to do?
Bison Kaalamaadan is not a sports film. If it were, the running would be training. But these shots of Kittan running aren’t about form or athleticism (though Dhruv is magnificent). They’re about psychological distress. They’re about flight, not fitness. It’s why when he learns he hasn’t been selected, he almost breaks down and says, “Sir, let me go for a run. I’ll feel better.” In a better world, Kittan would run only for sport... not from birth.
It feels almost wrong to admire the beauty of such shots... the top angles, the silhouettes... but they are gorgeous in Bison. And purposeful too. They capture Kittan’s isolation. One particular shot: Kittan doing push-ups in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by water. The healing power of nature. You wonder how horrible his life might be if it weren't for sport as a distraction, as purpose.
Here, the sport, kabaddi, is one of breathless urgency. Time is always against you, the smallest missteps prove to be really costly. That dynamic mirrors Kittan’s life. Every time he gives in to instinct, he is punished brutally. It’s the same physical instinct that makes him brilliant at kabaddi, incidentally. But here, in his world, it brings horror. His father (Pasupathy, in superb form) pleads with him never to fight, not even against injustice. But how does one separate instinct in the field from instinct in life?
The film moves with the same breathlessness as its protagonist: murders in the opening stretch, national trials, a goat incident that escalates shockingly. At every turn, danger... Mari’s frames are full of details even during the chaos... the reaction of dogs, stray objects like aruvamanai... While we learn about young Kittan’s affection for Rani, we’re parallelly told the tragic love story of his sister. While Kittan’s head crashes onto the road, we see his father bathing, remembering his own kabaddi days. The film has all these layers... of history, of memory.
It would be lazy and unjust to dismiss such films as ‘oppression cinema’. Mari’s world isn’t binary. It’s complex and kind... in fact, too complex for Kittan to process. He keeps saying, “Enakku puriyala… thalaila bomb vecha madhri irukku.” The film gives us an upper-caste leader (Lal) who looks beyond caste when it comes to sport... and a man from Kittan’s own community who disowns him. The oppressor-oppressed boundaries are crisscrossing here.
There’s a moment when someone asks Kittan to relax, and he says, “But I don’t know how.” That is the tragedy of his existence. When he’s finally selected from the trials, his reaction isn’t joy... Watch his face. It's disbelief. His body language says, “Can I afford to believe this?” Dhruv is extraordinary in such portions; so is Pasupathy, as he's pleading with policemen, with his own son to let go of the game... as he's trying to figure out what being a good dad means.
Tarantino once said certain artists are touched by cinema. Mari Selvaraj is one such. He conjures visceral emotion from the simplest ideas. There’s a sequence where Kittan, broken, dances in open land at night. Nivas’ music and the filmmaking turns pain into performance. And Mari keeps making beautiful choices: when Kittan is picked for nationals, he doesn’t look for his lover first; he embraces his sister. Such heartfelt, unusual choices.
For me, the film went far and beyond sports tropes. Its stakes are deeper. That's why that national win between familiar international rivals didn't really move me much. For me, the real victory wasn't of the points tally. As the film itself acknowledges, it's that Kittan is playing. Kittan playing kabaddi, Mari Selvaraj making cinema. It tells you anyone can do anything... and isn't that the hope all sports films aim to sow?
#bisonreview
Mari Selvaraj may be the best genre-breaker today. And #bison is a beautifully told story of a sportsman who faces hurdles due to caste / violence. Dhruv's journey from local champ to representing India is told with furious filmmaking energy
https://t.co/CG4gGurUD5