Review – Raja Ranguski

Review
Film: Raja Ranguski
Director: Dharanidharan
Cast: Shirish, Chandini Tamizharasan, Anupama Kumar, Kalloori Vinoth, Jayakumar and others
Music:Yuvan Shankar Raja
Cinematography:D K Yuvaa

Director Dharanidharan’s Raja Ranguski is an investigative crime thriller that is quite interesting.

Raja (Shirish) and Baskar (Kallori Vinoth) are two constables who are assigned the task of patrolling a gated villa community among other places.

While patrolling, Raja falls in love with one of the residents of the community called Ranguski(Chandni Tamizharasan), a bold young writer with a rebellious nature.

Ranguski’s neighbour is a senior citizen who is also an antique collector called Maria (Anupama Kumar).

When on beat patrol, the two constables often take time to have a chat with Maria to ensure that she feels secure as she is a senior citizen who is staying alone. Moreover, Raja likes the friendly Maria, who advices him on a number of issues.

Maria and Raja are on such good terms that Maria even enquires about whether Raja has told Ranguski about his feelings for her. Raja tells her that he hasn’t and points out that Ranguski has a rebellious nature.
Maria advises Raja to make use of Ranguski’s rebellious nature to make her fall for him.

Raja is impressed with this thought and hits upon an idea. He picks up a new mobile number and using that calls Ranguski, pretending to be a secret admirer. As the admirer, he tells Ranguski that she belongs to him and that she must stop seeing the beat constable Raja. The rebellious Ranguski does exactly the opposite and Raja’s plan works. She falls in love with Raja.

But the biggest twist of the film comes in at this point.

The two begin seeing each other. One day when Raja calls on Ranguski, she gets a call.

And to Raja’s shock, Ranguski tells him it is from the secret admirer. Raja is worried sick. He has many things going over his mind. Who was this person pretending to be the character he had created? How did he know something that only he and Maria were aware of? Was it a mistake to have employed this ploy of creating a secret admirer and thereby cheating Ranguski? Should he tell her the truth now?

As Raja wonders about his next move, the mysterious admirer calls him up and tells him that Ranguski was meant to be his until he came along. He warns Raja to back off. When Raja refuses, he offers Raja a deal. He tells Raja to kill Ranguski as she is the reason for the dispute between them. Raja flatly refuses and issues a feeble warning to the admirer, who then tells Raja that he himself will kill Ranguski.

The call from the secret admirer worries Raja, who calls Ranguski and asks her to be extra cautious. However, knowing her nature, he realises that she will do the exact opposite of what he has told her. To be on the safer side, he decides to call on her to check she is safe.

After checking on her, a relieved Raja begins to make his way back to his room when he he realises that Ranguski’s neighbour, Maria’s main door is open. He goes inside to check on her and finds her lying murdered.

The secret admirer calls Raja at this point and tells him that Maria’s murder is to be pinned on him. A shocked Raja realises he has just walked into a trap…

The film moves at a fairly good pace for the most part. The first half is a little slow but then, as the story progresses, the film picks up pace.

Raja’s efforts at investigating the case, along with his friend and co-worker Baskar(Kalloori Vinoth), even as he attempts to safeguard himself from being charged by the police is by and large interesting. There are some portions though that haven’t been well thought out. For instance, the manner in which Raja is allowed to escape by the police after he is nabbed by the CB-CID is just too simplistic and unbelievable.

Then, the basis for certain other murders that happen as the story progresses and the manner in which they happen aren’t all too convincing.

Director Dharanidharan seems to have had a great plot but hasn’t fully capitalised on it. Had he capitalised, this film would have had the potential to emerge as one of the best investigative thrillers of the year.

Shirish, who looked great in his first movie Metro, does a reasonably good job in this one. His performance in this film isn’t as good as it was in Metro but nevertheless, it isn’t bad either. There are some scenes in this film in which his expressions look fairly inadequate. For instance, Shirish sports an almost straight, expressionless face as if he couldn’t care less while Raja is being charged by the police for a heinous crime he did not commit.

Chandni plays her part to perfection. Be it the portions where she plays the naive, angry lover and then at a later stage, the evolved, mature, scheming, manipulative woman she turns out to be, Chandini is simply at ease.

Kallori Vinoth, who plays Baskar, the cop who accompanies the hero Raja while on patrol, is just fantastic in this film.

He has a terrific sense of timing and his one-line retorts to Ranguski and Raja are hilarious. It is Baskar’s character that plays an important role in keeping the film entertaining. Although, Vinoth has made appearances in several films, it is only in this film that one is actually getting a chance to understand his real potential as a comedian.

On the whole, Raja Ranguski is a fairly entertaining investigative crime thriller that has a clear message.

If love is to exist, three rules are never to be broken. The first is never lie to the one you love, the second, never cheat your loved one and the last, never ever pretend. Break any one of these rules, and all hell will break loose.