Ronth movie review: A solid police procedural led by Dileesh Pothan, Roshan Mathew; but Shahi Kabir’s usual problematic tropes persist

Although the basic idea of Ronth bears similarities to Shahi’s sophomore screenplay Nayattu, helmed by Martin Prakkat — with parallels extending to how the police force, initially appearing as a saviour to both its officers and the public, becomes tyrannical the moment things begin to turn against it — what sets the two films apart is the way the writer-director has handled the overall narratives and characters. While Nayattu lacked sensitivity and followed a pattern of “ruthless depiction”, further marred by misrepresentations and a largely anti-Dalit undercurrent, Ronth is handled with far more care; but has its flaws.

Much like Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day (2001), where a large part of the story unfolds through the journey of two cops (Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke) — with an evident power imbalance between them — in a moving vehicle and within a limited timeframe, Ronth also features a similar setup. On a night around the Christmas season, Sub-Inspector Yohannan (Dileesh Pothan) and his junior Dinanath (Roshan Mathew) of Dharmashala Police Station, Kannur, are assigned night patrol duty. And the entire story unfolds through the various incidents they encounter — some isolated, others slowly connecting to form a larger picture — during their working hours.

While Shahi establishes Dinanath’s character directly, shedding light on his rapport with his family, particularly his wife (a stellar Krisha Kurup) and their daughter (Baby Nandhootty), Yohannan is introduced more subtly, through the words of his colleagues. At the station, when one of the female officers requests Dinanath not to bring in extremely anti-social criminals nabbed during night patrol (as the women will be in charge of security that night), he tells her to make the request directly to Yohannan. One of them responds, “If we tell him this, he will find a teetotaller, get that person drunk, and then drop him off here.” Through such small, sharp dialogues, Shahi skillfully reveals the prevailing perception of Yohannan.

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But when the film cuts to Yohannan’s home, we see a very different man; one who does all the household chores and is visibly afraid of his wife. As the night unfolds, however, we also begin to witness the version of Yohannan that his colleagues often complain about.

Unlike typical cop characters, Yohannan is not black or white. He doesn’t even respond the same way to similar situations. At one point, he reprimands Dinanath for not being strict enough with a group of youngsters “unnecessarily” loitering in public. At another time, he scolds Dinanath for raising his voice at someone who disrespected the latter in the line of duty. Although calm in that moment, we also see Yohannan putting that very man firmly in his place later in the film. The same Yohannan, who shows deep compassion towards Dinanath upon learning that his daughter has a fever and when the latter is visibly disturbed upon seeing a woman’s body hanging, doesn’t miss a chance to belittle the young man or scold him; sometimes offering compassion and criticism in back-to-back moments. Without overt exposition, Shahi builds Yohannan’s character through such instances and interactions, highlighting him as an ‘experienced officer’ who instinctively knows what to do, when and where. Dinanath, in contrast, is the archetypal righteous newcomer, whom older generations would infantilisingly call “yet to see the world”.

Although the film opens with Yohannan in police custody for a suspected murder, much of the narrative plays out in flashback, building up to the moment when the tables turn. Shahi takes his time constructing the world and characters without relying on a conventional mainstream template. In a way, Ronth feels like the kind of film we might have seen if director Abrid Shine had treated his Nivin Pauly-starrer Action Hero Biju (2016) as a police procedural drama instead of a comedy.

Even though not every moment or incident in Ronth is nail-biting, Shahi has brilliantly managed to keep the audience engaged throughout, without ever letting the narrative lose its grip. The way he weaved in the mention of the eventual murder right at the start plays a key role in keeping the audience hooked. As more characters are introduced — any one of whose murder could derail the lives of the two cops — Shahi’s skilful misdirection keeps viewers guessing, making the eventual reveal all the more impactful.

At the same time, instead of romanticising mental health issues or overlooking the struggles of those grappling with them, Shahi shows personal growth here by handling such elements with far more care. Unlike films such as the atrocious Officer on Duty, helmed by Jithu Ashraf — wherein a very evident and genuinely psychotic villain, the haloed hypocrite and the weeping saint, is glorified and positioned as the ‘hero’ — Ronth addresses the greys in its cop characters with greater sensibility, without whitewashing them entirely.

Beyond that, Shahi is also a “brilliant” screenwriter in a problematic way. His ability to reframe a character and make the audience sympathise with them, by giving them tearful backstories and portraying them as scarred angels grappling with the ghosts of the past, is shocking. Even though his central cop characters usually have just as much grey in them as the evidently reprehensible officers like DySP Jacob (Arun Cherukavil) and Sadanandan (Kumaradas) in Ronth, and despite the fact that the commoners mistreated by them have every reason to harbour resentment, Shahi shrewdly downplays these aspects by painting over them with thick coatings of personal trauma. Yohannan is a case in point.

Unlike Detective Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) in Training Day, who is clearly depicted as an antagonist, Yohannan, though not involved in as many overtly illegal activities, is frequently shown in a sympathetic light, subtly encouraging the audience to overlook his flaws. While it’s evident that he, too, struggles with mental health issues, Ronth largely glosses over his questionable actions. This tendency is one of the recurring issues across Shahi Kabir’s movies. In his quest to humanise police officers, he often ends up overlooking their condemnable actions and ignoring the significant power they hold (even a CPO, for that matter) within the societal hierarchy, especially when compared to the average citizen.

Ronth, though not as explicitly or disgustingly as Nayattu, also reveals glimpses of the filmmaker’s troubling attitude towards Dalits. (Spoiler ahead) From the repeated use of the term “colony” (commonly used pejoratively in Kerala and Tamil Nadu to refer to SC/ST people and their settlements) — although uttered mostly by grey-shaded characters — to the killing off of a Dalit character simply to show the strength of the case against Yohannan and Dinanath, the film is not free from Shahi’s questionable mindset.

Performance-wise, Dileesh Pothan delivers one of his finest to date as Yohannan, masterfully revealing just enough of the character’s many layers at any given moment. Roshan Mathew, too, is solid as Dinanath, especially in his more vulnerable scenes. However, the unfortunate decision not to give them proper dialects has detracted from the film’s overall quality.

Technically, Ronth is a well-crafted cop drama, marked by a strong visual language, thanks to the brilliant cinematography by Manesh Madhavan. The film beautifully captures the ethos of both the characters and the broader landscape in tandem. The organic transitions between mid and wide shots, especially as the characters’ moods and the narrative tone shift, enhance its visual depth, thanks in part to editor Praveen Mangalath’s thoughtful work.

It is in Ronth that we truly see the invaluable lessons Shahi must have absorbed during his time as an assistant to Dileesh Pothan on the latter’s directorial Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (2017). Each frame here feels well thought out, and the minute detailing in every shot contributes richly to the film’s overall aesthetic and emotional impact.

Ronth movie cast: Dileesh Pothan, Roshan Mathew, Krisha Kurup, Lakshmi Menon, Arun Cherukavil, Nandan Unni, Sudhi Koppa, Baby Nandhootty
Ronth movie director: Shahi Kabir
Ronth movie rating: 3.5 stars