Rangoon is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language action crime drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Periasamy and produced by AR Murugadoss. The film features Gautham Karthik in the leading role and 8 Thottakkal fame Lallu in a prominent role, while newcomer Vikram RH composes the film’s music. Vishal Chandrasekhar will compose the film’s background music.
Few minutes into Rangoon, we are taken to the life of people in the biggest city of Myanmar (formerly Burma) in 1988, where the protagonist Venkat’s (Gautham Karthik) childhood is established. The reason for his family to move to Madras is convincingly told, and the audience can’t be blamed if they remember KV Anand’s Anegan. The visuals of the city are beautifully captured by Anish Tharun Kumar, making viewers wanting the entire story to unfold there. But, fate takes Venkat, his sister and mother to north Madras, where his father secured a job recently. Though little hesitant initially, he befriends with Kumaran on the first day, as the city Madras, its culture and people are completely new to him.
His father passes away after a while, and Venkat, as he grew up, becomes an irresponsible guy, who likes to spend time carelessly with his friends Kumaran and Tip Top (Daniel). Kumaran recommends Venkat to Gunaseela (Siddique) for a job in the latter’s jewellery shop. Guna, who is into smuggling illegal goods, get impressed by Venkat’s enthusiasm, and assigns him more jobs. Guna’s trust in Venkat increases when the latter saves him from getting killed by business opponents.
Meanwhile, Venkat falls for Natasha (Sana), an aspirant singer, who resides in his locality. She, too, starts liking him after getting to know about his righteousness and his growing standard of living. When Venkat and friends decide to bid adieu to their association with Gunaseelan, he gets another assignment from him, where he is asked to get money from Burma, in exchange of huge amount of gold. The newly-appointed investigative officer Syed Nawazuddin (Anand) hatches plan to nab them, but Venkat and friends reach Rangoon in a clever way without falling prey to the traps laid by cops. When everything went fine and they were about to return from Rangoon with the money, they get the shock of their life – the money bag goes missing. Though unable to face Gunaseelan, they manage courage and narrate him what has happened. A peeved Guna gives them two days to arrange money, and the trio resorts to kidnapping to earn huge money in such a short time. Their planning misfires, because of which they pay the price in the form of a life.
Venkat is now worried about returning Gunaseelan’s money, concerned about his lady love, his sister and mother’s lives and the friend whom he had to sacrifice during the course of things. He gets to know a few shocking facts about the unanticipated link between some people which makes the situation worse. He then takes on his opponents for his own survival.
Gautham Karthik, as Venkat, who undergoes varied emotions, has put his soul into the character. The film is a welcome relief to him after the debacle of Muthuramalingam. Siddique excels as Gunaseelan, the multi-faceted and selfish businessman. Sana as Venkat’s lover was decent, though the romantic portions didn’t contribute much to the story. What makes Rangoon an impressive film is its casting, interesting screenplay with twists and turns at the right time, the performances and the flawless technicalities.
Vishal Chandrasekhar’s background score stands out and Vikram’s songs deserve mention. The fight sequences choreographed by Anbariv are partly realistic, yet quite engaging enough to keep the viewers hooked.
Directed by Rajkumar Periasamy
Produced by AR Murugadoss & Fox Star Studios
Written by Rajkumar Periasamy
Starring Gautham Karthik, Sana Makbul
Music by Original Songs: Vikram RH, Vishal Chandrasekhar
Background Score: Vishal Chandrasekhar
Cinematography Anish Tharun Kumar
Edited by Prasanna GK & Vijay Venkataramanan
Production AR Murugadoss Productions & Fox Star Studios
Release date 9 June 2017
Country India
Language Tamil
