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Director Jithu Madhavan has a campy idea of Bangalore city. In his stories, the South Indian metro is the Las Vegas for unassuming Malayali youth. They land in the city to enter bizarre rampages of all kinds to never return to normalcy. First in Romancham and now in Aavesham, we get a slice of this world that might invoke mild nostalgia to Malayali who migrated in the ’90s or the mid-2000s, but not the late millennials or Gen-Z.
The lack of reliability, at the same time, gives Aavesham a unique creative edge. The groovy actioner transports you into a maze of eccentricities. Aju (Hipzter), Bibi (Mithun Jai Shankar), and Shanthan (Roshan Shahnavaz) are freshers in an engineering college in the city who have no interest in wooing girls. Instead, they lock horns with the seniors – a group that lives in seedy lodgings straight out of pulp cinema. The leading trio is put up in a ‘Paying Guest’ facility where students live like inmates, not friends.
Enter Ranga (Fahadh Faasil), an all-white-clad Malayali gangster decked in tonnes of gold jewelry and exuding oodles of swagger. The boys, seeking revenge on the senior goons, instantly gravitate towards Ranga. The boisterous man, too, soon takes the lads under his wings. In no time, Aavesham turns into a testosterone carnival with nearly no females in sight – a phenomenon we observed previously in the filmmaker’s debut film.
The source of warmth in Jithu Madhavan’s film is Bibi’s mother (Neeraja Rajendran) whose catchphrase, “Are you happy, son?” is the film’s conscience. Is Ranga ever happy amid all the adulation he receives? What is Bibi’s idea of happiness? What would possibly make the boys and Ranga smile wide? Do they have an ounce of innocence left in them?
Aavesham isn’t particularly a plot-driven film. If the ‘la la land’ setting contains enough shock value, the hilarious and often crude lingo (mixed with Sushin Shyam’s bangers) spice up the narrative. Then there is Fahadh who ignites the frames with his volatile energy, agile physicality, and power-packed dialogue delivery (the Bangalore Malayalam is a treat) – skyrocketing Ranga into the archives of Malayalam cinema’s greatest screen badasses. While Fahadh does the maximum heavy lifting, the young cast is equally adept at their debut turns – each gifted with distinctive personalities. Sajin Gopu as Amban is hilarious in what is a tailor-made part.
Jithu Madhavan noticeably falters with the film’s unrealistic projection of Bangalore and its characters that oscillate between goofy and plain violent. During an early chase sequence, all I had in mind was the absence of the city’s nerve-wracking traffic. This way, Aavesham‘s spoofy bits are a riot but when the film turns all serious (the camera often circles a younger Ranga to validate his deeds), the interest levels dip. There is also a slackened pace in the camaraderie-building stretch with a redundant flow of events. However, the film soon compensates for the wasted minutes with an electrifying final hour.
Aavesham isn’t a bona fide musical like Thallumaala. Yet, the musical verve of the film in slickly choreographed (and glam) action sequences heightens the plot’s innate energy. The filmmaker also intersects key sequences with funky bits – such as Ranga’s towel dance, the game of Dumb Charades, and the backdrop of Holi to a key fight sequence – each adding to the film’s already high entertainment quotient. Aavesham is rich with a rousing screenplay, glossy frames, and a leading man who could up the ante for Indian cinema’s male actors with a mere passing gaze. Can there be a spicier recipe for a mega-blockbuster?
Rating: ★★★ 1/2
