'Ranam' is a technically sound film. Jigme Tenzing captures the ugly, dreary side of the 'American dream' pretty well. The music and background score by Jakes Bejoy is splendid (especially the title track and the 'Ayudhameduda' bits). Frankly, the first half of the film builds up well (with a few nods to Nicolas Winding Refn's 'Drive' - a movie I honestly did not fancy but apparently, the world loved it. The characters of Adhi (Prithvi), Damodar (Rahman), Bhaskaran (Nandu), and Seema (Isha Talwar) are slowly yet steadily developed. The interval block sets us up for a thrilling second half.
But the film goes downhill from there. Scenes appear contrived and rushed. Even the love-track between Adhi and Seema doesn't come across as too convincing. The 'Damodar' character is said to be a vicious gangster but the intensity is barely felt. Prithvi can pull off characters such as Adhi with ease, as this is his forte - a brooding, straight-faced hunk, with little to zero sense of humour. Nandu, as expected, manages to keep his struggling NRI character grounded and believable.
A gangster-drama cannot always stick to logic but the manner in which the cops take so long to come to conclusions about the death of a particular character is appalling. In fact, the cops do not really have a say in proceedings at all, other than making them look more sophisticated to the audience. There's a party drug at play, there's money-laundering, there's betrayal, and there's a 'master-plan' - it's precisely these gangster-movie elements that do not seem compellingly incorporated.
A few characters also needed better writing. Adhi's backstory is said in flashback vignettes, but we need more than that to connect to his inner struggles. Seema too could have had more emphasis in the screenplay. It is almost as if Nirmal started off his script with an action-heavy crime thriller in mind and midway, decided to turn it to a more character-driven drama. Hence, neither genre particularly came full circle.
Perhaps, it could also be Prithvi's recent choice of moping characters that act as a deterrent from enjoying an experiment like 'Ranam' to the fullest. It is a well-made, almost well-written film that terribly lacks good direction.
