Ramachandra Boss and Co Movie Review: Nivin Pauly's heist-comedy aims to steal all your energy 

There is a big villain problem in Haneef Adeni's movies: the characterisations and performances get worse with each film. If Joker served as an influence for the one in The Great Father, the one in Mikhael was an actual joke. In Ramachandra Boss and Co, the primary antagonist is a dude who behaves like someone finally getting an opportunity to relieve long-pent-up constipation but is constantly hindered by some guy every time he gets ready to go the bathroom. Actor Munish, known for his appearances in some critically acclaimed Hindi-language films, makes numerous attempts to strain and contort every muscle of his face, not to forget gritting his teeth and showing most of it, to look his most maniacal. This constant display of psychotic breakdown gets so annoyingly repetitive that I was waiting for him to be put out of his misery as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that takes quite a long time, and when it finally does happen, we get deprived of the cathartic relief. We feel cheated. Actually, the entire movie feels this way.

Director: Haneef Adeni

Cast: Nivin Pauly, Jaffer Idukki, Vinay Forrt, Sreenath Babu, Mamitha Baiju, Arsha Baiju

Most people put off by Haneef Adeni's last film, Mikhael, would stare in disbelief when I tell them I enjoyed it for just a one-time viewing. Of course, I wouldn't dare to revisit it, but the first time I saw it, I treated it like a Tom and Jerry cartoon -- not to be taken seriously at all. It was one of those films that make you constantly ask, "Are these guys serious?" but you can still find a way to mine some fun out of it. However, I cannot say the same of Ramachandra Boss and Co. I went into it expecting another Tom and Jerry episode, especially since it's also Haneef's first attempt at comedy. (The Great Father and Mikhael had comedic moments, too, but those were unintentional; let's not get into them now.) This, on the other hand, is one of those films for which, they say, you should leave your brains at the door. I did, but only for a while because I had to retrieve them to maintain my sanity.

In the makers' minds, the target audience of Ramachandra Boss and Co (RBAC) must be kids. They don't expect the adults to take it seriously, do they? (If some grown man or woman enjoys it, I won't knock them for it.) But I'm seriously trying to understand what made Nivin Pauly pick this script after doing two substantial films like Mahaveeryar and Thuramukham. Was he trying to recreate the charm and swag of his character from Premam? If that was indeed the intention, it no longer works. His attempt at pulling off a largely nonchalant, impossible-to-break character creates a bitter aftertaste. When he shows up in this film in an SUV with sunglasses, it no longer looks cool. Here's a guy introduced to us as the mastermind of an upcoming heist for which the principal players -- Vinay Forrt, Mamitha Baiju, Jaffer Idukki, Vijilesh, Sreenath Babu, and Arsha Baiju -- get recruited, but he doesn't inspire much confidence as a confidence man. 

Perhaps it aspires to be Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (or its sequels), but RBAC leans more towards the much funnier Logan Lucky (also by Soderbergh). I mention the latter because every character, even the relatively serious ones, like Jaffer Idukki's, has a comical side. There are scenes where the jokes work; they either involve Vinay Forrt, Mamitha Baiju or Nivin Pauly. But all that amounts to maybe 10 mins of the film's near-150 min runtime. The rest of it is just plain bad or outdated. 

How else can one describe Forrt's constant attempts to play the 'kozhi' of the group, trying to woo every woman he comes across? It's nice to see Forrt having fun, but, man, come on, this sort of humour is way past its expiry date. As I said, the target audience must be kids (or teenagers). I can easily imagine most of them having a blast at whatever passes for humour in this film. I must also say that some of it's just plain misguided, like an instance where the after-effect of a comical situation gets immediately tempered by a briefly mournful moment involving Vijilesh's relative before getting rudely interrupted by another weak attempt at comedy by Forrt.

Perhaps RBAC would've been more manageable had Haneef used some of that money for the vehicles to stage some satisfying action, but alas! No such luck. His picturisation of stylish wheels, often in slo-mo, reaches a near-Michael Bay level of fetishisation. But none of these vehicular moments induce even a modicum of excitement. Towards the third act, there is a car chase, in which I expected to see some extraordinary manoeuvring and fireworks, but that didn't happen. They keep driving... and driving... and driving. It was so bland that I dozed off for a minute, only to wake up to see them still driving! No crashes, no explosions, no gunfire... nothing. What a bummer!

To make matters worse, the choice of background music is awfully uninspiring and relentlessly energy-draining. The same goes for the film's only song, 'Yalla Habibi', which they must've produced to appeal to the Insta crowd in mind; it's simply an assault on the senses. Their combined effect is analogous to a scene in the film where the villain applies a drill on a character's ear while torturing him. I had to check twice to see whether it was indeed Midhun Mukundan, behind the fabulous music and songs in Rorschach, who worked on RBAC.

In an oft-repeated dialogue of Nivin in RBAC, he talks about his idea of a truly successful heist: the one where every team member comes out with nary a scratch on their body, aside from the effective retrieval of the loot. I won't spoil the outcome of the heist for those who haven't seen it yet, but I think it would be safe to say that the manner in which they wrapped the film left me feeling so exhausted. 

I mean, what's with this recent trend of trying to end every movie like Lucifer? That meme of Suresh Gopi and Jayaram from Salaam Kashmir immediately springs to mind. Kurup did it; King of Kotha did it; and now Ramachandra Boss and Co, too. There is only one Abraham Qureshi. Everyone else is Abraham Qureshi-lite. Some originality, please, for crying out loud.