Review of movie Ratsasan

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rating:3.5/5

In the beginning of Ratsasan, we get to see a murder. A mysterious assailant walks towards a tied-up woman and starts hitting her with his axe. Before we can feel the shock, we get to see that it is actually a film shoot. And the next instant, we also find out that it is a dream – of Arun Kumar (Vishnu Vishal, effective), an aspiring filmmaker. Arun wants to make a movie on a serial killer, but faces rejection at every step of the way. These scenes seem to be a reference to what director Ram Kumar might have faced with this script in real life. But for Arun, the pressure from his family forces him to become a cop. His late father was a cop and with an uncle (Ramadoss) in the police department, getting into the force isn’t too difficult for him.

And then the plot kicks in. A girl is found murdered in a gruesome manner and Arun finds out that it could be connected to a previous case. All the research that he had done for his movie script leads him to realise that these could be the work of a serial killer And there is hardly any clue. Soon, another couple of murders occur, with one being a personal loss, which only increases his resolve to catch the murderer.

Ratsasan is a competent thriller, for the most part. There is a tautness to the storytelling, especially until the interval block, that keeps us hooked. Even the obligatory romance – Amala Paul plays a teacher whom Arun is smitten by – is quickly wrapped up with a couple of scenes. So much so that even the short romantic song has Arun’s investigation happening in the background.

The narrative does falter in the second half, when a personal loss threatens to steer the film towards melodrama that doesn’t suit this material, but Ram Kumar manages to avoid that pitfall. But he does get indulgent towards the end, drawing out the final act instead of wrapping things up swiftly once the revelation involving the murderer (whose appearance recalls Vikram from Ai) has been made. The backstory is both familiar and unique, but the character of an egoistic superior officer is grating.

That said, the director doesn’t hold back when it comes to violence. And rather than gory visuals, he makes use of editing and music to make us feel the violence. The spooky, almost wall-to-wall score by Ghibran and the tight editing by San Lokesh actually amp up the tension and lend an edge-of-the-seat vibe to the proceedings.