Gatta Kushti 2 review: Men talk feminism in Vishnu Vishal’s film, but women pay for it
Gatta Kushti 2 Review: Director Chella Ayyavu’s Gatta Kushti 2 starring Vishnu Vishal and Aishwarya Lakshmi is a family entertainer based on the wrestling background. The film has an unbalanced take on gender politics and comedy that never succeeds, making it a sequel that could have been scrapped.
In a span of two months, we saw Samantha, Preeti Mukundan and Abhirami in action like no one else. Mother Inti Bangaram And blast. But Aishwarya Lakshmi did so in 2022 when she made her place in the hearts of the audience with her role. gatta wrestling. Four years later, the team reunites for a sequel that promises to delve deeper into the lives of Veera, Keerthi and their daughter, Mathi Malar.
❮❯
The film begins with a promise that Veera (Vishnu Vishal) makes to Keerthi (Aishwarya Lakshmi) – that he will stand by her wrestling career when she becomes pregnant. Years later, Veera is a house husband while Keerthi manages her work and wrestling career. However, chaos ensues when he discovers that his daughter Mathi Malar is not interested in sports and is failing subjects.
Veera and Keerthi want to raise their child in different ways. Due to one disagreement after another, Kirti’s wrestling career was ruined and their relationship broke down. What happened to them? Why are they headed for divorce? What does Mathi Malar want? All these questions were answered in two hours 34 minutes.
Director Chela Ayyavu’s gatta wrestling It was a fun film that received praise for Aishwarya Lakshmi’s role. Although the film fell into patriarchal territory post-interval, it attempted to do something new in the commercial arena by challenging gender roles. In 2026, when the conversation about changes in gender roles and politics is far more diverse, creating a gatta wrestling 2 It’s like walking on a rope.
And, to the disappointment of many, gatta wrestling 2 It undoes whatever little progress was made in the first half and takes us back to the 80s and 90s – where men made jokes about wives and talked about putting women in their place. What’s worse is how the script disguises this unbalanced take on gender politics as an attempt to promote family values.
Veera is a homely husband – he does his daily chores, socializes with the women in the neighborhood, and is a friendly father to Mathi. But when it comes to accountability, he hides behind this phrase: I did it by mistake. Typical, right? And Kirti is almost punished for all her choices. The film sees Veera as an ideal man who supports his wife, while Keerthi is the one who suffers for it.
Yes, Veera cooks and takes care of Keerthi, but what about emotional co-dependence? The film does not do justice to their relationship as husband and wife. Their bond is so weakly written that all it takes is one conversation with their coach to pit them against each other. And when Keerthi has to pay the price of her career – the one thing that matters most to her – Veera simply backs down and says she made a mistake.
The film portrays Keerthi as career-oriented, and it is her own daughter, Mathi Malar, who keeps reminding her that she is nothing without Veera. In other words, the story punishes Keerthi for pursuing her goals despite the distrust her husband routinely creates.
gatta wrestling 2 There’s a teacher angle in this that’s in particularly bad taste, which reminds you Natamai And similar movies. Mathy Malar’s teacher Meenu (Moksha) appears straight out of an 80s film set – and all it takes is for Veera to stare at her. He dances with her, she kisses him, they go to cooking competitions together – and he never tells her what’s going on between them or takes a step back. What’s worse is that Keerthi, a woman who has fought her own battles and built her own career, is reduced to a jealous wife who behaves badly towards the other woman. The film doesn’t fail Kirti as a character here – it uses her intelligence against her.
These are tropes that Tamil cinema has moved beyond to a great extent. Chella Ayyavu pulls them back gatta wrestling 2. The film is filled with double meaning dialogues, obnoxious camera angles and jokes that don’t land.
gatta wrestling 2 It’s less about the wrestling and more about how toxic this pair is to each other. It also makes fun of divorce proceedings and sports. The climactic wrestling fight between Veera and Keerthi ends in perhaps the most clichéd way possible – veering into uncomfortable territory and never being explained away. The conversation between Keerthi and her father about letting children choose their own path is really enjoyable.
gatta wrestling 2 Big injustice is done to Aishwarya Lakshmi’s fame even though she owned every frame with her performance. The film takes the man’s side – shamelessly – and emphasizes this by allowing him to talk feminism, celebrate the strength of women, and declare that motherhood fulfills them. Vishnu Vishal as Veera gets a role that normalizes a series of problematic behaviors for which the film never holds him accountable.
Asking a small child to speak like an adult is another mistake. Karunas and Kaali Venkat manage to have some laughs towards the climax, but not enough to save what came before.
gatta wrestling 2 Ultimately supporting a man who hides behind his shortcomings and keeps getting opportunities he hasn’t earned – at the expense of the woman the first film made its mark on.