A sports movie featuring an unlikely lead who challenges a celebrated champion is textbook. Elaborately detailing his underdog state, such films drift into fierce training montages and later the opponent is presented as an adversary off the field and it culminates in a deciding contest. Only, we know who'd win. But Freaky Ali is barely a sports film. It blendsWelcome's cocky brand of humour with a predictable underdog story and is largely watchable only for Nawazuddin.

After having wowed us with some superlative performances, some good actors are always willing to take chances and another swing at big-screen stardom. Do they succeed? While a few of them (like Irrfan Khan, Pankaj Kapur, Tabu) do merrily cross over to give us heartwarming films, many struggle hard in the rough with bad scripts. Therefore, like most others, Nawazuddin Siddiqui attempts to do a mainstream Freaky Ali while trying to balance out his penchant for the serious and the light-hearted with ease.

Why a comedy based on this game of Golf which is in general believed to be a boring, unpopular and uninteresting in this part of the world which worships cricket is above imagination. Maybe Sohail had found it interesting to invest moviegoer's interest in this game by a larky romp that will aim only to please and turn an amiable screw ball but it fumbles and fumbles so early that never really gets back in the game. In golfing sense - a sheer 'duff' (poor golfer).

After spending years playing quirky and off-beat roles, Nawazuddin Siddiqui finally took up the challenge of playing a typical hero in a mainstream 'masala' movie titled Freaky Ali and by Golf (pardon the pun), the man has impressed us once more, despite our skepticism. Directed by Sohail Khan, Freaky Ali is about underdog Ali (Nawaz), an orphan who makes a living as a sidekick to a goon Maqsood (Arbaaz Khan). When an acquaintance Kishan Lal (Asif Basra) accidentally discovers that Ali has a talent for golf, the caddie starts training him for a golf tournament, where he has to defeat reigning champion Vikram Singh Rathod (Jas Arora). Will Ali overcome all odds and emerge as a champion? Watch and find out...

Remember American comedies like Tin Cup and Happy Gilmore which centered around golf? They all had dysfunctional, underdog heroes who come out of nowhere to win prestigious golf tournaments. Well, Freaky Ali is a happy amalgamation of all those films. Ali (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is an orphan brought up by a Hindu woman (Seema Biswas). He's a deadbeat underwear salesman who plies his trade on the streets. He becomes friends with Maqsood (Arbaaz Khan), who takes him on as a partner in his extortion racket that he looks after for Danger Bhai (Nikitin Dheer).

The first thing that strikes you when Freaky Ali begins is what an odd-bod collective this enterprise appears to be: to have Nawazuddin Siddiqui play the lead is a masterstroke, but to have Seema Biswas play his mother? Like, really? This apparent randomness wouldn't have been such a deterrent if the plot had some meat to it because Nawaz is quite capable of carrying a film on his own. But within a few minutes, we know that it is a David-Goliath clash between a 'sadak-chaap' fellow and a suited-booted character.

Ali is an orphan abandoned at a dargah and is raised by Sulabha (Seema Biswas), a Maharashtrian lady whom he fondly refers to as his mum. He is happy to sell underwear to earn a living. But his friend Maqsood (Arbaaz) tells him that he can double his earning if he becomes an extortionist. So Ali joins him. He knows that if his aai ever finds out, she will be heartbroken.

At some point in Freaky Ali, its titular hero Nawazuddin Siddiqui and his snooty golf rival Jas Arora clash over their economic difference in lines that reek of an era dusted and done with. Straightaway sensing how dated the ameer versus gareeb squabble sounds in the current scenario, Nawaz mocks it in a hushed, self-parodical tone. If only Sohail Khan's exercise in stereotypes would facetiously scoff at Freaky Ali's farce more often, its adherence to all tried and tested elements would be a lot less tedious.

Ali (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a under garment seller in a local market. After having a dull business, to help his foster mother (Seema Biswas), he starts extortioning money for a local goon. By a fluke of luck, Ali's neighbor, Kisanlal (Asif Basra) recognizes Ali's talent in golf. He soon starts to train him and Ali even manages to pass the qualifiers for becoming a professional golfer.

In the game of golf, albatross is a score where the player sinks his ball into the cup 'three strokes below the par' (meaning three strokes less than the par score of the hole). But have you ever seen crowds go crazy with dhol and dance on a golf course? No. That only happens on a cricket ground. Before making the final strike in Freaky Ali, Nawazuddin Siddiqui says he will make the final strike with a sixer and that is exactly what he does - both in and for the film. Sohail Khan's latest directorial venture brings out an unseen side of the actor we would love to see more.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui sells underwear in a crowded market somewhere in Mumbai. He has a glib and practised sales pitch but it does not effectively translate into a successful trade. When he gets sacked, Ali's friend Maqsood (Arbaaz Khan) lures him away from undergarments to the underworld. The duo work as protection money collectors for a two-bit, accident-prone thug called Danger Bhai (Niketen Dheer).

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the true underdog star, who has captured the imagination of the multiplex-goers, and has developed a cult following over the past few years, after playing a series of smooth-talking sadakchhap smart alecs. THEN, why not cast him as a smooth-talking sadakchhap smart alec protagonist in a masala potboiler? He doesn't even charge that much, but he can get the audience to clap and cheer. All we need is Salman Khan to say some nice things about him in the film's promotions.