Director Unni Sivalingam seems fully aware of the dramatic limitations of his wafer-thin plot and stock characters, and cleverly uses them as a ruse to craft an engaging gangster drama. Balti relies on caricatures and stereotypes to propel its narrative, drawing on well-tested, if slightly worn-out, scenes and character beats, but executing them with competent flair.

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Balti is at its most effective when it avoids excess and moves briskly in a straightforward, plot-driven mode, retelling stories as old as time. Imagine a Vetrimaaran film stripped of character detail, nuance, social observation, or a textured sense of place, and you have the world of Balti. Everything here is broad, underscored a frequent voice-over narration punctuating key beats of the screenplay.

Balti treats the sports angle largely as padding; these four friends could have been doing anything before being drawn into the messy trifecta of local loan sharks, each exploiting them for petty power games. Kabaddi simply makes the plotting more convenient, so they end up as sportsmen. The screenplay uses two matches to sketch their personalities with minimal fuss, but the sport is abandoned in the latter half. As the tension builds, the film morphs into a chamber drama of sorts, with four gangsters in hiding, each wary of the snitch working behind their backs for personal gain.

Balti often feels like a collection of scene ideas rather than fully realized scenes, with the director leaning on a thumping score to keep the entertainment quotient high. Golden boy Sai Abhayankar, in his first released film, proves wise enough to craft memorable themes and motifs for the central characters—music that conveys more about them than the writing does. His score sustains momentum and pacing across much of the film, weaving local flavors into its very DNA more effectively than the half-baked script. Shifting between percussion, EDM, and synth-driven sounds for the action sequences, Sai ensures the film keeps moving with energy and flair.

Selvaraghavan, as the menacing private financier, adds bite to the antagonist’s arc. He humiliates defaulters on his tier-based, high-interest loans by stripping them in front of their families, an image both cruel and compelling. Hints of his operations, his dream of pulling off the ultimate banking scam, and allusions to a difficult childhood give him just enough shading to remain a forceful presence in the lives of the four kabaddi players. There’s plenty of fun in watching the slickly dressed “Soda Babu” (Alphonse Puthren) trade icy glares with his two local business rivals, Bhairavan (Selvaraghavan) and G-maa (Poorinam Indrajith). The film thrives in its pulpy, weightless stretches of action and gang wars, driven by the principal characters finally finding their footing. Shane Nigam and Shanthanu Bhagyaraj complement each other well, their dynamic leaving residues of tension that surface at every stage of conflict. Preeti Asrani, however, is saddled with a nothingburger of a female lead role, confined to a handful of plot points with little agency or presence in the story.

As a sports movie, Balti struggles to earn any credence. But as a generic action film set in a world of gangsters and ruthless loan sharks vying for control, it works more effectively. There’s a constant push and pull between these two storytelling modes, with the action narrative clearly dominating.

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Yet the impersonal writing and thin character sketches drain the immediacy from the action and undercut the high-stakes plot. The film’s attempts to tap into the emotional core of friendship, and the tragedy triggered by one friend’s poor choices, feel trite and disconnected from the rest of the story. Still, whenever Balti surrenders to its action instincts, it delivers a good time at the movies.

Balti movie cast: Shane Nigam, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, Selvaraghavan, Preeti Asrani, Alphonse Puthren
Balti movie director: Unni Sivalingham
Balti movie rating: 3.5 stars