Being a filmmaker and a screenwriter, Shahi Kabir has by this time built a particular impression in my mind that, whenever I sit down to watch a new film directed or written by him, I become extremely nervous, in a good sense. How does he think of some of the blackest stories? A bleak, refreshing take on the buddy cop thriller, Ronth, his second directorial following the tremendously spooky Ela Veezha Poonchira, and featuring Roshan Mathew and Dileesh Pothan in the lead, is an absolute hoot. Well, I am not even sure I would apply the buddy to this one, since Shahi, who also penned the script this time around, creates a strained image of a senior cop and a junior cop with conflicting personalities, whose differing perceptions are shown throughout the film as they go through one disturbing situation after another.
Ronth (that can be translated as night patrol) is the fifth police thriller written by Shahi, and, again, tinted with his real-life experiences as a policeman who witnessed all sorts of troubling incidents. Ronth, as expected of him, does not promise you a warm, feel-good experience. (The nearest he ever got to a feel-good movie is the denouement of Officer on Duty.) It is not as much of a depressing experience as, say, Officer on Duty (which he wrote) or Ela Veezha Poonchira (which he only directed). Nevertheless, it provides the same -or almost the same- shivering post-credits scenes of Joseph or Nayattu, two films he authored. Ronth is another story of corrupt policemen who are normal people struggling with different inconveniences and previous trauma.
This is one of the good attributes of Shahi as a writer and filmmaker, the manner in which he choreographs the relationship between a veteran police character and a junior guy. It is vital to make both characters possess strong traits of personality. Yohannan, played by Dileesh Pothan, is the senior cop in this case; Dinanath, played by Roshan Mathew, is the younger cop. The two men are an odd couple; you might even think it was a poisonous working relationship — and yet you also understand that they will cover each other. Even though the experienced and battle-hardened Yohannan taunts the young and sensitive Dinanath on various occasions, there are instances where the former supports the latter. The film is making the point that they are people, just like us with all of our shortcomings, and had we been in the same situation as Yohannan or Dinanat, we could have very well done the same thing. Ronth has what I would term as the career-best performances of Dileesh Pothan and Roshan Mathew. These two are simply geniuses!
In Ronth, we find some of the common themes that Shahi had addressed in his earlier movies. We witness policemen whose families are badly stricken by their career choice. We do not just find one character, whether male or female, raising issues about suspicious partners. We witness a character that struggles to visit a particular location since it reminds him of a tragic loss. We have a character who is corrupting the rules, as he is well aware that the same people he is serving would not take care of his best interest, even though he is so much dedicated to his profession. Shahi has a heavy existential and cynical streak in his writings, and in Ronth, it reigns supreme.
It is one of those movies that, unless you are already a father, will have you re-commit to the notion that this is not a world that we should introduce children. What with it being the young ones that are most affected in Ronth, be it the kids that belong to the families of the policemen or the kids that belong to the troubled strangers that they happen to come across in their usual night patrol.
Although Ronth shares themes with the other films shot by Shahi, he takes care not to repeat the structure and formula that he used in the other films. The way the tension and the conflict are created is unlike in Joseph, Nayattu, or Officer on Duty. In Ela Veezha Poonchira, he had limited the action to a small number of characters in one place. The characters in Ronth go to the outskirts, to the places that are either barren, or spooky, or incredibly beautiful (and cinematographer Manesh Madhavan has done a good job in capturing these locations). The alienation is strong that accompanies these two characters.
Yes, Ronth lacks big stars, but when you have a script that is so powerful, you do not really need them. I said earlier that what Shahi is doing with his script of Ronth is not what he did with his script of Officer on Duty in the direction they follow. You do not want to burden actors who can swing between dark and light with a heavy topic like this. I will say it is the most similar in mood and spirit to Nayattu. When I say that Ronth is a spiritual successor of that film, I am not giving anything away. I am not saying this without a reason, and you will find out why after you watch the movie.
Director
Shahi Kabir
Writer
Shahi Kabir
Stars
Roshan Mathew, Lakshmi Menon, Dileesh Pothan
Genre
Drama
Rating: 4/5