Jithu Madhavan fully understands the excitement this thin plot can generate and instead of zooming past this idea to get to the “story”, he fills up the first half with some of the most random moments, all of which contribute in one way or another to the epic moment the first half is written around. This includes the 45 minutes it takes for us to get to Ranga (Fahadh Faasil) in one of the aforementioned bars. The three boys (played by the excellent Mithun Jai Shankar, Hipzter and Roshan Shanavas) who’ve just moved to Bangalore, go from one bar to another to become close enough to a gangster in their plan to avenge an annoying college senior. Even Ranga’s intro scene is one that can be studied for the way it balances comedy with mass, with a hundred tiny moving pieces coming together to create the desired effect. By this point, we know everything we need to know about our three protagonists and their plight. We also know what they’re up for when they become friends with someone like Ranga.
What this leads to, at times, is even more randomness, like the hilarious five-minute sequence where the boys tell Ranga that they want to see all of his gang’s weapons. We also get traces where the film subverts every scene you’d imagine in a film that follows this plot, including the way it addresses Ranga’s origin story. It’s almost like he gets two backstories, one that’s meant to be taken as a joke and another that is far more serious and emotional. You can choose to believe either to understand Ranga and chances are that you’re still going to be surprised later on.
