Rangoon (Tamil, 2017)

Gautham Karthik responds in a grand fashion to his critics after a string of debacles in what could be a defining movie that propels his career into the right gear. He slips into the role of a Chennai local with utmost ease while emitting traits of a migrant and an innocent man in just the right doses.

Vishal Chandrasekar has built quite a reputation in recent times for his background score which is infuses vigour, especially at the interval block as it helps us absorb the suspense. R H Vikram does the honours for most of the songs including the moving “Yathreega”, the breezy “Enai Marakirene” and the arousing “Foreign Return” which stand out from the lot and underline his talent. 

The story details a good deal about the operation of gold merchants and Hawala apart from attempting to decode the enforcement battles in an enterprising manner. The dialogues and dialect spoken by the characters lend that added tinge of authenticity while making the experience all the more enjoyable.

Daniel who got a break as a supporting actor alongside Vijay Sethupathi in Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara with his unique voice and dialogue delivery is back again donning the role of a comedian spanning the length of the movie and doesn’t disappoint. His witty retorts along with other characters of North Chennai locals, play to good effect on the funny bone.

While Gautham Karthik puts in a lot more earnest and convincing efforts on his romantic episodes this time around, the whole gig with his pair is nothing more than a distraction for the movie watcher as it just fizzles out without bearing any impact on the core plot of the movie.

The climax had a lion’ share of twists that roots out all assumptions one might have made. Though it can be argued as keeping the ending as unpredictable, the right balance between throwing in knots over the span of the movie and attempting to reveal them is not achieved. This gives a feeling of a hurried climax without doing justice to the time spent on building up to it.

The screenplay launches into ambitious spaces at half-time, only to leave the audience high and dry as it dwindles down into a mellow second half. By the time the climax is up on us, a lot of pending action is rained down again in a short duration to highlight the pacing issues that plague the screenplay.