Aavesham Review: A Kickass FaFa Kidnaps This Wobbly Gangster Comedy

Writer and Director: Jithu Madhavan

Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Ashish Vidyarthi, Hipzster

Duration: 150 minutes

Available in: Theatres

The first half of Jithu Madhavan’s Aavesham is what one can call an epic male fantasy. Set entirely in predominantly male spaces, such as the boys’ hostel, desolate shopping malls and seedy bars, women do not so much as get five minutes during the runtime of Aavesham. This is by design and the fantasy the film is angling towards is one every Indian boy has thought of during the first days of college. What if a bunch of college seniors are out to get you when you’ve moved to a new city? And what if you get a dreaded gangster to take the place of an older brother when you get pushed to the wall? 

Jithu Madhavan fully understands the excitement this thin plot can generate and instead of zooming past this idea to get to the “story”, he fills up the first half with some of the most random moments, all of which contribute in one way or another to the epic moment the first half is written around. This includes the 45 minutes it takes for us to get to Ranga (Fahadh Faasil) in one of the aforementioned bars. The three boys (played by the excellent Mithun Jai Shankar, Hipzter and Roshan Shanavas) who’ve just moved to Bangalore, go from one bar to another to become close enough to a gangster in their plan to avenge an annoying college senior. Even Ranga’s intro scene is one that can be studied for the way it balances comedy with mass, with a hundred tiny moving pieces coming together to create the desired effect. By this point, we know everything we need to know about our three protagonists and their plight. We also know what they’re up for when they become friends with someone like Ranga. 

What this leads to, at times, is even more randomness, like the hilarious five-minute sequence where the boys tell Ranga that they want to see all of his gang’s weapons. We also get traces where the film subverts every scene you’d imagine in a film that follows this plot, including the way it addresses Ranga’s origin story. It’s almost like he gets two backstories, one that’s meant to be taken as a joke and another that is far more serious and emotional. You can choose to believe either to understand Ranga and chances are that you’re still going to be surprised later on. 

This includes a phone call Ranga gets when the three boys are in his company. The ringtone itself is the mother’s theme from KGF and you’re likely to take this too as a joke. But when the full scene plays out, you assign an emotional core to Ranga that makes him so much more than a foolish gangster. You feel his isolation and how lonely he feels despite having everything going for him. Until then you’ve imagined Ranga’s vow to never hit anyone to be just another wild joke in a silly movie. But tiny details like these make him a real person as though he once had a soul.  

Yet you wonder where some of those surprises go missing as the movie moves on to the second half. The idea for the second half seems to be based on that one iconic dialogue from Godfather III, “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” We see the trouble the boys get themselves into due to this high-profile friendship and we see them do everything they can to try and get out of that loop. Their studies begin to suffer and they outgrow the comfort (including a fridge full of beer, a cupboard full of cigarettes and a swanky new Bullet) they can afford, thanks to Ranga. This is also where you see the film lose the energy and focus it had all along including how the song ‘Galatta’ overstays its welcome.  

It takes the film a good half hour to get back into the zone we enjoyed in the first half. This is in part due to a hilarious sequence that revolves around a game of dumb charades and Ranga’s obsession with it. After this, the jokes flow freely again and the film doesn’t try too hard to force drama into a film that is predominantly written around its comedic set pieces. This is also where you get to see Fahadh take over the film with the help of Sajin Gopu, who plays his sidekick. In some scenes, you see how Sajin Gopu almost single-handedly keeps things going even when you’re about to feel a certain fatigue with the other characters. 

But when the big mass moments return, you do not really miss the comedy as much and you understand why certain decisions were made for this segment to work. The randomness returns and you recall reasons why Romancham (2023) worked so well. Barring that small drop in the second half, Aavesham remains enjoyable thanks to a group of wonderful new actors, a solid soundtrack by Sushin Shyam and the Fahadh Faasil-Sajin Gopu duo that make sure you leave the theatre on a high. We get a loveable new gangster in Ranga and a gangster comedy made with some real style.