Rangoon movie review: Gautham Karthik's best performance to date; impressive directorial debut

Rangoon is an engaging, crime thriller from debutant director Rajkumar Periasamy, an assistant of AR Murgadoss, who has produced the film. The film’s title is relevant for the twist in narration though the story is set in Sowcarpet and Burma Bazar area of North Madras — a hot spot for those dealing in smuggled gold. It is Gautham Karthik’s best performance till date as the character is well etched. The story is about friendship, loyalty, jealousy leading to betrayal and a bloody end. [caption id=“attachment_3536151” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  The poster of Rangoon.[/caption] Venkat (Gautham Karthik) like so many others is young guy who grew up in Burma before he came back to Chennai. He, along with his two loyal childhood friends gets sucked into gold smuggling due to the machinations of a cunning gold dealer (Malayalam actor Siddique). Basically Venkat is a good guy who gets used by others, which leads to confrontation, after a high-value gold deal in Rangoon goes sour. A kidnapping element in the story is well conceived and is the lead up to the climax twist. The director has done a lot of research on gold smuggling in North Madras and its various gold shops are hot breeding ground for smugglers dealing in the yellow metal. Periasamy has made it look real without playing to the galleries, which has made each character look more authentic. For the hero it is love at first sight with the heroine (Sana Makbul), a club singer, and thankfully all the songs are in the background. RH Vikram makes an impressive debut as a music director, and two songs, ‘Foreign Return’ and the melodious ‘Yathriga’ enhance the movie along with Vishal Chandrasekhar‘s background scores. On the downside the film at times looks a bit stretched even though it is only 2 hours and 7 minutes. This may be due to the monotonous second half. But the film will be remembered for Gautham Karthik’s best ever performance as he has gotten into the skin of the character with his dark make-up and usage of North Madras dialects in his dialogue delivery. The guys who play his friends are also aptly cast, while Siddique as the scheming manipulator is fantastic. Rangoon is a well made, engrossing and realistic film.