Ronth aka Patrol [dir. Shahi Kabir]

I was excited about Ronth (aka Patrol) because writer-director Shahi Kabir wrote the script for Nayattu and directed Elaveezha Poonjira, two of the most ball-squeezingly tense movies I've seen in recent years. The latter was a terrific Hitchcockian exercise with just two characters for most of the running time.

Ronth is another cop story, but of a different nature. In its premise of following two policemen - sub-inspector Yohanan (Dileesh Pothan) and his constable-driver  Dinnath (Roshan Mathew) - doing their night patrol, it features a more sprawling and episodic narrative. On their rounds the cops, who share a prickly interaction with each other, encounter a series of different situations, which expose their vulnerabilities as well as their hidden strengths. Pothan is especially remarkable as the experienced officer, a credible mixture of bullying and empathy, corruption and integrity to his job. Mathew's rookie is a bit of a caricature in terms of how naive he is shown to be. The situations they face go from the mundane to the bizarre (in one instance they have to deal with a madman that has imprisoned his young child in the belief that it will be stolen from him...a situation similar to the one faced by Takashi Shimura's warrior in Seven Samurai). In the course of the night they learn more about each other, and the audience learns about them. When the morning comes, they face a sudden crisis that may destroy them both.

Where Ronth falls short compared to Kabir's previous efforts is in its lesser subtlety. We already see the inspector's complex nature from the way he handles his psychologically afflicted wife, the petitioners they meet, and the way he reacts to the constable's family emergency. But Kabir feels the need to include a scene where Yohanan has to explain himself to Dinnath; why spend more time telling what you have already shown? As the night goes on, the sheer number of locations the cops have to visit begins to seem a little improbable; it's like they singlehandedly represent the whole force. Also, compared to Nayattu, the crisis of faith/betrayal they face has a more manufactured feel, and is handled with less nuance than one has come to expect from the maker.

But overall, Ronth is very much worth the watch, and I'll definitely keeping a watch for more outings from Shahi Kabir.