'Raja Ranguski' Review : An engrossing plot let down by amateurish performances

The film begins with Raja (Metro Shirish) calling up one of his friends to save him from an intriguing situation. Within a few minutes, we are transported to the run-of-the-mill love scenes, hinting to the audience that the rest of the film will be narrated in a non-linear fashion. A young beat officer, Raja, falls in love with a girl, Ranguski (Chandini), who introduces herself to him as an aspiring writer. In order to win her love, Raja devises a plan and impersonates as a ‘mysterious’ man who stalks her through phone on a regular basis. When things begin to fall in place, a call from another ‘mysterious’ man threatening to kill Ranguski, leaves him in trouble. His attempt to visit his girlfriend’s residential colony to protect her, makes him the prime suspect in the murder case of an antique collector, Maria Paulraj (Anupama). The rest of the film is all about how he escapes from the trap laid by the mysterious killer and proves his innocence.      

Barring a couple of a scenes, the first half of the film keeps us engrossed. Be it the scenes where Raja tries to escape the watchful CB-CID officer, KK (Jayakumar) or the scenes in which Raja takes initiative to find the killer by suspecting the residences of the gated community serve us something new on the platter. However, as the film progresses the audience are left in a situation that they are least bothered about the killer. We understand that Dharani Dharan wants his actors to underplay their roles even when things get complicated. But it’s not good to see an actor like Shirish, who has performed exceptionally well in his debut film, Metro, trying to hold an emotional scene without any expressions. Chandini gets a strong role with scope to shine as a performer.. But this becomes just another film in her career. 

Anupama comes only for only a brief period in the first half. But the entire plot is built around her character. With only a handful of characters, it becomes easy for the audience to predict the killer in the second half. And the final twist is just rug-pulling for the sake of a twist. While DK Yuvaa’s visuals are quite refreshing, Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is a huge let-down. Unlike his previous outing, Pyaar Prema Kadhal, the background score of this film fails to impress. Raja Ranguski is a good attempt, but better casting and mature writing would have made it better.

Director: Dharani Dharan

Cast: Shirish, Chandini Tamilarasan, Vinoth, Anupama Kumar

Composer: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Synopsis: A young beat officer (Raja) becomes the prime suspect in a murder of an antique collector (Maria), who resides next his girlfriend’s (Ranguski) place. Will he discover the truth and find the killer or end up being a scapegoat? 

Rating: 2.5/5