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The new Pradeep Ranganathan film, Dude, on the surface, feels like one more addition to the kind of films Pradeep is sort of making his own territory, which is an angry loser hero going through a roller coaster ride of events. But this movie, written and directed by Keerthiswaran, has some really wild swings, and most of them you won’t even see coming. While the way it tries to seek a closure to the whole thing is reducing the electrifying start it got, I would still say Dude is a neatly executed, risky commercial entertainer.
Agan and Kural have known each other since childhood. They both are like buddies, and Agan has a history of relationships in school and college. But at one point, this friendship sort of drifted into the possibility of a relationship, and that created an uneasy tension between the two. Even though they resolved that tension, a lot of unexpected things started to happen when Agan decides to help Kural in her love life. What we see here is how they tackled all those issues.
The narrating style of Keerthiswaran is really fast. But he sort of knows how to crack the right emotion within a short span of time. In the first 15 minutes of the movie, he is able to show us the bond between the lead pair. Even when it comes to dialogues, he deliberately keeps the movie away from extreme melodrama. In fact, the characterization of Agan is done in a way to avoid the possibility of excessive melodrama. When you look at the visual style and the pacing of the narrative, it has the approach of a basic rom-com. And into such a jolly good space, Keerthiswaran introduces the idea of caste as a conflict. He is not making the movie look like one of those “issue-based” films. But he uses the dialogue-heavy popular cinema grammar to criticize casteist mentality, uphold a woman’s choice, and it was something that we won’t see coming.
By throwing in slightly crazy, big-scale problems in front of the hero, Keerthiswaran sets up the plot in an enticing manner. The movie is basically an eccentric take on unrequited love, which we often associate with a softer tone. I really enjoyed how he clubbed the mass aura of a hero with his selfless love for his friend in that interval block sequence. Where the movie sort of loses energy is in the second half, where they are pushing the idea a little too much. The first half itself was a whirlwind. And Keerthiswaran put himself under pressure to deliver something better and crazier than that. While a lot of the things in the first half had practical reactions from characters, the comical pitch sort of changes in the second half. Some of the interestingly set-up characters, like the one played by Sarath Kumar, are given this convenient closure. I am not saying all those things were bad. Looking at the way the movie approached the second half with that punch line about what is vulgar, the movie had prepared us for something better. Sai Abhyankkar’s tracks are already chartbusters, and since the movie is mostly in that energy high zone, the music is constantly there in the backdrop as a mood builder.
The character of Agan falls in the zone of Pradeep Ranganathan, and he performs it with all the swagger he can add. The guy is slowly building his own set of signature moves, obviously with a pinch of Rajnikant inspiration. He has that unique way of delivering screaming comedy, which we have seen in films like Love Today and Dragon. But what I liked about his performance in this movie is the way he blends style with pain in certain crucial moments. Mamitha Baiju carries the cool dude energy along with Pradeep in this movie. The friendly chemistry between these two was essential for the movie to work. That was there in the performance. The scene where Mamitha really scored was at the beginning of the film, where she performed Kural dealing with rejection. It was so early in the movie, yet we could feel the pain of that character. Sarath Kumar comes in as a real surprise. His character may have those cool dad comedic undertones. But there is another layer to that character, which I felt he performed in a very balanced way. Hridhu Haroon, as the soft lover boy, was also nice, and I really feel he should consider lighter roles rather than going after the action hero image.
Some of you may have seen a funny video where one guy tries to escape a speeding ticket by lying to the police officer that he was going to the hospital to see his pregnant wife. But then the officer sort of follows him after that to check whether he was lying or not, which eventually changes his life forever. The drama in Dude is somewhere, depending on a similar idea to create fun moments. Dude may not be a perfect film, but at a time when most commercial entertainers try to follow a template, this Pradeep Ranganathan starrer is willing to think differently.
Review By: Digitpatrox