Raangi Movie Review
Filmmaker AR Murugadoss has penned the story of ‘Raangi’, which is directed by Saravanan (Engeyum Eppodhum fame). The film features Trisha as the lead character with Anaswara Rajan performing an important character.
Thaiyal Nayagi (Trisha) an online channel reporter, finds a Facebook account of her niece Sushmitha (Anaswara Rajan). She encounters a 17-year-old boy Aalim from Libya is chatting with her on that account. The FBI on the other hand wants to bring Aalim under their custody using Thaiyal Nayagi and her niece as bait.
The team during its pre-release event had mentioned that the film went through several re-edits and other technical works during the Lockdown phase. This is commendable as they have converted a linear play into non-linear screenwriting. On contrary, if the script had gone through several stages of reworking, it would have worked wonders for this movie. AR Murugadoss’ story owns an international touch, which not many writers have attempted before. The innocent love of the character ‘Aalim’ is heart-touching. He is the hero of this movie, and hence the title ‘Raangi’ itself turns out to be irrelevant. The scenes, where his way of polite conversation and his unconditional love for his girlfriend is poetically conveyed. Not to miss the particular scene – where Trisha tries to irk the corrupt police officer by sending her location, and the very next minute a huge mess happens in the station. While there are such good moments in the film, there are a few on the flip side too. There is a scene, where Trisha finds out the identity mark of Anaswara to find the morphed image, and later manages to get hold of her classmate, who is the actual culprit. She could have followed the same pattern instead of asking her niece to make things complicated. In the very next scene, she advises the girl with an inferiority complex saying, “When you study and achieve big money and a job, you can change your entire face.†Such words completely ruin her image. Director Saravanan should have focused on such minuses and rectified them.
The translation of voice messages through FB messenger is okay. But when the FBI officer says ‘I Love You’, the translation is done with a SIRI kind of female voice. The funniest part is he insists Trisha continue the conversation. When it is possible by anyone, why force her to do it?
Such negatives ruin the beautiful story and theme of Raangi. The musical score by Sathya is good, and his BGM is appreciable in many places. Cinematographer Shakthi has captured the visuals of Uzbekistan in great style.
If the screenwriting process was done with more scrutinizing efforts, this movie would have been a hit beyond linguistic barriers, and for now, it’s an average fare.
Raangi Movie Review
Summary
Verdict: An exceptionally intriguing tale that goes directionless due to screenwriting