'Aavesham' Review : Fahadh Faasil is riveting in this fun ride

The story can be contained in a line ---three Engineering college freshers after being mauled by their seniors, reach out to a local don to seek their vengeance. What follows is a riotous, hilarious narrative that more or less rides on its wacky, irrepressible leading man. Director Jithu Madhavan, who debuted with the comic-horror Romancham last year, hasn’t altered his topography this time. The Bangalore in the story still covers the suburbs, featuring an Engineering college, a few crammed PGs, heaps of crowded local bars, and a house with a past. 

A few minutes into the film, you get a sense of DeJa’Vu. Once again, you have a world spilled over with boys (and men) from all spectra of society, struggling to find their space and identity in a new city. And Bangalore, where the director has spent a large part of his college life, isn’t exactly swanky (similar to Romancham). The boys hailing from Kerala elect to stay in congested PGs just so that they can get their share of booze and fun. These dreadful, seedy constructions are perched on either side of a narrow road, where a large population of students reside. At night, they gather on the terrace to have booze and eggs fried on a cloth iron. The initial awkwardness that quickly dissipates over a plastic glass of alcohol, followed by the daily humdrum of college life, is deftly captured in a few scenes (peppered with spontaneous humour).

The boys get a generic sketch (fun, temperamental, disobedient, yet scared of the system). But the originality comes from Bibi’s cheery mother, who wants everyone to be “happy.” And that’s smartly linked to the narrative.

The film starts to pick up momentum when Aju, Shanthan, and Bibi are brutally assaulted by their seniors one night and vow to seek vengeance. To find “local support” to trounce them, they decide to hunt all the local bars, hopeful of picking a small-time don or rowdy. At these local bars, heaving with grubby, hairy men emptying endless pegs of alcohol and chicken kebabs, the boys desperately search for the most menacing ones. And the search eventually ends in front of a frail young man with a handlebar mustache, Rayban, wearing all white, decked up in chunky gold jewellery.

This is when the texture suddenly gets a gleam. With the entry of this quaint, twinkle-eyed Ranga, who speaks a fusion of Kannada and broken Malayalam, Aavesham dramatically shifts gears. Then the fireworks erupt. The realism makes way for an outlandish, local masala Tamil pot-boiler. As a character, Ranga is a work of art (a witty and mad blend of Mallaya (Chattambinadu) and Boss (Shylock). Like the boys, we are also sizing up the man. Warily. Gradually.

As if Jithu knows the title embodies his leading man and that any bug in his characterization can hamper the narrative, he puts all his energies into establishing Ranga. And to be fair, Fahadh Faasil was putty in his hands. And Fafa singlehandedly shoulders the film, all guns blazing. Everything about Ranga is deliriously barmy. Right from the moment he lights a cigar at the bar’s loo, to his loony grin, the twinkle in his large brown eyes, that dappankuttu number in a towel, to his swag and his charming slang (Eda Moyne!), he is a riveting sight.

Equally entertaining are his yes men, headlined by a goofy Amban (a terrific Sajin Gopu). The whole staging that leads to Ranga and after is massy and unpredictable, and that is consistently maintained all through the film. Some of the mass-action pieces are done keeping an eye on Ranga’s ingenuity. Be it the Holi stunt sequence in front of the college or the whole car feat, everything is flavoured with wit and a bit of terror. Every single Sushin Shyam track tailor-made for Ranga and his boys is a bang for the buck.

Then there are those passages that untangle Ranga’s different shades of grey. Take this dumb charades sequence that vacillates between hilarity and anxiety, elevated by Fahadh’s “mad” brilliance. Or that superb third act that shows Ranga’s true unravelling. Ranga's equation with the boys is finely detailed. And the boys, in turn, handle him with a mixture of respect and fear. 

Having said that, sometime post-interval, the film loses its steam, only to pick up later on. A word about Sajin Gopu, who matches Ranga’s energy with his goofiness. The adorable aide who would die for him. His best moment comes towards the later half, when he sulks like a kid when Ranga has a meltdown.

Aavesham also debunks another myth surrounding Fafa. Done well, mass is also right up his alley. To cut a long story short, Ranga defines Aavesham.