PremiumRifle Club movie review: Aashiq Abu’s all-star cast fires in this fun, crisp and riveting thriller
Rifle Club review: The film has style, but where it truly connects is through its characters. Their family squabbles & egos are used well to humorously showcase the difference between the two groups.
Last Updated: 02.45 PM, Dec 19, 2024
Rifle Club story: After an arms dealer’s son dies, his group chases the perpetrators to a rifle club in Wayanad. The members of the club, along with a superstar, get caught in a bullet fight for survival that pits their arms and skills against automatic weapons.
Rifle Club review: In the past 15 years that filmmaker Aashiq Abu has helmed movies, there’s no debating that he has been a driving force of change in Malayalam cinema. From Salt N’ Pepper, 22 Female Kottayam and Idukki Gold to Mayaanadhi and Virus, the auteur has always brought something new to the table with his films, even when they didn’t work like in the case of Naradan and Gangster. Incidentally, the latter film could be the sole example of where the action-thriller, despite its cast and crew, faltered in its execution. With his latest thriller, Rifle Club, which has an ensemble cast, the filmmaker more than makes up for all the misfires.
Rifle Club’s plot revolves around a Mangalore-based arms dealer seeking out two youngsters, who flee after getting into an altercation with the former’s son. The youngsters reach a rifle club in Wayanad, the members of which include multiple families who have “the hunter’s mind” and are skilled at handling all types of guns. How the two groups – with their varying skills and weapons – come head-to-head in this survival-cum-home invasion thriller, make the story of the latest addition to Aashiq’s filmography.
The plot itself has enough gripping elements, what with its writers – Syam Pushkaran, Dileesh Karunakaran and Suhas – dividing its extensive group of characters, by placing one where the attack is ongoing and another in the middle of a forest, where wild boars and tigers are rampant. But where Aashiq and the writers, once again, shine are in their expertise of handling scripts with a long list of characters and making each of them interesting. While this does come at the cost of sometimes underutilising the talent, it’s not something that many would complain about, especially in a genre such as this.
The film has style, make no mistake, but where it truly connects is through its characters. Their family squabbles and egos are all used well to humorously showcase the difference between the two rival groups. While it could have been easy to elevate this type of movie with ‘mass’ and stylish moments, the makers, instead, deliberately use the dynamics within the club members to carry the film. Be it when the two sisters-in-law are competing for kills or a gun-toting priest is spouting words of wisdom, it all adds to the dark humour of the film that keeps the focus on entertaining a larger audience, rather than be self-indulgent and serve only a select group.
Aashiq, who has also served as its cinematographer, ensures the visual aesthetics that his movies are known for, are intact for this one too. Rex Vijayan’s songs mash well with the narrative, which its editor V Saajan seldom lets drag. The final few minutes, when things become predictable, could have got some high, with better music; but then again, it’s subjective.
In terms of cast, Dileesh Pothan and Anurag Kashyap get the lion’s share of screen time in a film in which the makers have ensured that every actor gets their due. Anurag Kashyap as the arms dealer gets a role that needs him to be restrained and yet crazy, because of what has happened to his sons. It would have been more fun if the character was more unleashed though. Dileesh as Secretary Avaran embodies the heroism in the film, which doesn’t need ‘larger-than-life' sequences but a few headshots of a charging wild boar or while dangling on a zipline to make its point.
This also means that whatever screentime the other actors have, they have had to maximise it in terms of the impact. There’s a host of actors – from Prashanth Murali, Darshana Rajendran, Vani Vishwanath, Suresh Krishna, Surabhi Lakshmi, Vineeth Kumar, Vishnu Agastya and Hanumankind, all of whom deliver at least a memorable sequence. And that’s where Rifle Club hits the target.
Rifle Club verdict: Aashiq Abu’s thriller, which is crisply edited and neatly shot, makes for a great escape to theatres, thanks to its cast and some smart writing. Could it have been even more fun? Yes, but that doesn’t take anything away from this ride while it lasts.