Raghu Thatha Review – Fairly Engaging!

Ashwin Ram

Raghu Thatha is a period comedy drama starring Keerthy Suresh in the lead role. Directed by debutant Suman Kumar and produced by Hombale Films.

Premise:

Keerthy Suresh is a feminist who is a bank clerk and also a magazine’s columnist. She isn’t really interested, but out of compulsion she agrees to get married. The drama begins when Keerthy Suresh finds out her fiancé is a toxic man.

Writing/ Direction:

It’s a character cum screenplay driven film, certain elements when introduced raises doubts as to why it exists and later it makes sense when the payoff is done. The presence of the Hindi imposition topic is questionable, but there is clever purpose to it which is told in the climax, the impact is underwhelming yet it is beautifully linked with the main plot. The film could have been much crisper by trimming many subplots that feel external to the core subject, the Hindi scholar sidetrack for example, that appears frequently at random places and placing a solo pathos song for MS Baskar, etc. The film speaks of feminism and the world of women around toxic men, it appears to be flat at times due to being preachy and works really well towards the end when the craft comes into the picture along with strong drama. The first half exhibits Ravindra Vijay as a problematic person in an earthy subtle manner, who is forcefully revealed as this terrifying chauvinistic man via written statements found in his diary. Fortunately, the second half balances out cinematic liberty with grounded drama, there are multiple well written and executed sequences that boosts the play. There are several misses in the flow, the main drawback is the comedy, many jokes don’t land as intended. Gladly the human drama works in the movie’s favour which is sure to click for the mature crowd. The message conveyed in the end is splendid and the particular scene is filled with clap-worthy moments.

Performances:

Solid performance by Keerthy Suresh, commendable  character to root for and it will resonate better with the women crowd. Ravindra Vijay is perfectly casted, he pulls off a subtle male chauvinist role with easing grace. MS Baskar takes the story forward, but his presence was over-elaborated at places. Many other supporting artists like Devadarshini, etc played their part well by serving the purpose.

Technicalities:

Pleasing songs from Sean Roldan, soulful to listen to and apt for the 1980s period. His background score timing had a great sync with the situations, he has found a right balance between silence and music queues. Quality camera work with respect to angles and framing, but felt the colour saturation was high throughout. Fair runtime, but definitely the editor had space to shorten certain lengthy scenes and cut down the lags. Neat work by the art, costume and style department as they’ve carefully worked on maintaining the period timeline.

Bottomline

The drama and topics covered are relevant, still it’s a good choice to be set as a period flick considering certain approaches in the narrative. Big blow with the humour aspect, however the noble message gets delivered decently well.

Rating – 2.75/ 5