If you remember Action Hero Biju, the screenplay had this way of placing extremely contrasting situations one after the other to show us how the daily life of a police officer changes in a matter of minutes. The furious and funny interrogation of the pan masala seller is followed by the suicide attempt of a woman and child in that movie. Shahi Kabir, the director of the latest Malayalam movie Ronth, is a police officer, and if you look at all the movies either written or directed by him, they all had a specific event to concentrate on. Ronth is perhaps the first time we see him deliberately putting an effort to show us the routine life of police officers. However, unlike Action Hero Biju, the routine we see here has the purpose of being set up to several things, and that makes Ronth an engrossing watch.
Yohannan and Dhinnath, a senior police officer and a recently joined one, are our main characters. Yohannan, who is known for his rugged way of handling things, is sharing the night patrolling duty with Dhinnath. With a lot of ideological friction between the two, the way they approach each scenario becomes interesting. What we see here is the series of events that happen in one such night of patrolling.
If you look at the other movies of Shahi Kabir, the primary layer of those films is a thriller. In the case of Ronth, the thriller aspect takes a backseat, and Shahi shows an interconnected series of encounters the officers had during a regular night of patrolling. Depending on the nature of the case the officers are after, the mood of the scene changes, and Shahi gives us excerpts about who they are as human beings through each event. Even before Yohannan explains his story to Dhinnath, we get an idea about what may have made Yohannan this kind of a person. The interconnection of the series of events that happens there is actually showing us how policing intelligence and negotiations work.
Dileesh Pothan, as Yohannan, gets a beautiful character to play, and he has performed the part brilliantly. In a recent interview, he said that this character has a different way of behaving in each circumstance, and I feel the believability in Pothan’s performance when he switches from being an angry senior officer to a loving husband or a tactical negotiator is what holds the movie together. Roshan Mathew, as Dhinnath, is that fresh blood who has a very idealistic view of his duty as a police officer. Much like Yohannan, Dhinnath also has different reactions in each scenario, but most of them are dependent on Yohannan’s reaction. Roshan’s character is in a space where he can end up acting like a man-child, something I found problematic with Tovino’s performance in Narivetta. However, Roshan is able to make those vulnerable reactions look real on screen. The sort of angst he has in the final portions of the movie is extremely real, and I feel it helped the movie a lot in pulling off that predictable climax with emotional heft.
As I already said, the focus this time is to dive into the routine of a police station. When you look at what eventually happens in the end, you will understand that Shahi is not trying to whitewash any of the acts. He shows how a corrupt system forces even the good ones to opt for shortcuts and make discretions. We get to see the difficulties of a beginner in the force to get adjusted to some of the tragic scenarios. We also observe how some officers have their own share of trauma that they will have to face while on duty. The good thing about Ronth is that they are making it part of the plot in a very subtle way so that by the time these characters reach a difficult situation, we will genuinely root for them. There is one powerful dialogue towards the end of the film, which talks about the difference between being a policeman and knowing policing.
The cinematography by Manesh Madhavan does not opt for a cinematic look, and even in frantic scenarios, we are getting these handheld frames, which sort of maintain the realistic feel. I felt that the background score in certain portions in the second half, especially the quarry scene, could have been different or minimal. It almost felt like the scene got prolonged just for the score to end. The sound design was done neatly for the film, maintaining the rough and eerie mood of the movie.
Ronth, in many ways, feels like a thematic blend of Action Hero Biju and Nayattu. Recently, Shahi Kabir revealed that there are plans to create a sequel to Nayattu, and interestingly, Ronth gives us a reason why Nayattu 2 has all the potential to attract viewers. With good performances and a tightly knit screenplay getting the best out of the story, Ronth is a well-made police drama that humanizes police officers in the most real way.
