Ramachari 2.0 review: Thej’s intriguing thriller about karma has a shaky start but sticks the landing

3/5

Story: Friends Ramachari (Thej) and Vijay (Vijay Chendoor) work at a bakery/café in Bengaluru and are roommates as well. House owner Sharadha (Sparsha Rekha) and her family occupy one floor of the house that Ramachari and Vijay stay at, and has been preparing for the wedding of her visually-challenged daughter, Nandini, including setting aside 1 kilogram worth of gold jewellery. When Ramachari gets his hands on the key to the cupboard holding the gold, he decides to steal it and use it to make something of his life. This, though, sets in motion a set of events that bear an eerie resemblance to an incident that occurred in Chitradurga 25 years ago. Can Ramachari figure out this mystery?

Review: The first 30-odd minutes of director-producer-actor Thej’s second film Ramachari 2.0, honestly, did not inspire much confidence in the film. The Mandya huduga, who spends his time watching Nagarahavu re-runs on TV and fights with local thugs to maintain Kannada pride, and is then sent to Bengaluru to make something of his life. After trying his hand at multiple jobs, he finally settles in at a bakery/café, right opposite a plant nursery run by Margaret (Kaustubha Mani), and promptly falls in love with her. By this point, I thought this was going to be a routine tale of inter-faith love and the troubles that brings along. But I was wrong and how!

The love story has pretty much nothing to do with the actual story and was more of a red herring, which lingered a tad too long. Once that chapter is done and dusted, Thej turns the attention on to the main plot, and unveils Ramachari as a man with grey shades. Here is a hero who is not only willing to steal, but is also smart enough to pin suspicion on someone else, and keep the stolen goodies well out of sight. This act, though, sets in motion a strange series of events, that Ramachari then realizes had played out 25 years ago in the same order and with some unpleasant outcomes too. The earlier incident had a strong bearing on his family. How he then goes about unravelling the mystery and its karmic connect, forms the crux of the story.

The film is, no doubt, a Thej vehicle from start to finish, and he does justice to his role as filmmaker and actor. My best guess is that the initial bit is his attempt at adding a commercial touch to the proceedings so that the film appeals to a wider section of audience. In this case, though, it was really not needed. A sequence of events repeating in the same order at a different point of time is an interesting premise by itself.

Verdict: Ramachari 2.0 is all of two hours long, but would do well if it goes through the chopping board once more and gets rid of all the initial fluff. The main plotline is solid enough to carry the narrative. The film, which released in April, has wound up its theatrical run and is set to drop on OTT shortly. Thej, we hear, is in the process of finalizing a streaming partner, which, of course, we will let you know as soon as that happens. And when it does, do give this film a dekko.