There's an instance in Rifle Club where Dileesh Pothan's character Avaran is in the middle of a hunt with a group and points to the Western Ghats, reminding a member that all kinds of beasts inhabit it, and all of them taste different. We could apply this analogy to the members of his own family—men and women included—who belong to the eponymous 'Rifle Club'. This is a large family where the men and women have no qualms about brandishing a gun, smoking a cigarette, or unashamedly discussing sex. Simply put, this is a family with no pretensions, which they demonstrate in a scene where they ask a movie star if he ever enjoyed doing a love scene.
The women in this family are as ferocious and badass as the men. When the first hint of trouble shows up at their gates, and a man asks the first woman he sees who is in charge and where the men are, she takes out a gun, places it in front of her crotch, and says, "Why don't you just imagine that I'm a man?" Aashiq Abu's new film has other similarly amusing little details, and the writing reserves most of them for this affluent family, all of whom are into hunting—more specifically, "big game" hunting. They prefer bigger, raised stakes; they aren't content with little trophies. As Dileesh Pothan says in one scene, "Everyone's got a hunter mind."
And when the film begins with much fanfare, with Anurag Kashyap's antagonist and his sons having a party in 1990s Mangalore, you expect the film to deliver everything on a large platter. Rifle Club is, indeed, a big film if we are thinking in terms of the presence of some of the biggest names in Malayalam cinema, starting with Vijayaraghavan, who looks very much like an older version of his now iconic character Ramji Rao. But, if you go in expecting every character to be fully fleshed out, Rifle Club is not that kind of film. With a duration of slightly under two hours, and considering the number of characters involved, there is no time to waste on getting you acquainted with each and every one of them.
There is, however, an attempt to have each of the good guys stand out with whatever little time has been given to them, which is achieved mostly through what they say and do. The script— by Syam Pushkaran, Dileesh Karunakaran, and Suhas—has ample funny banter spread evenly throughout the film.
Dileesh Pothan gets the funniest lines, especially his "double meaning" lines. I must also mention that this is the second film, after Maheshinte Prathikaram, to have Dileesh Pothan and Unnimaya Prasad playing husband and wife. This time, though, the husband doesn't have to keep telling his wife to "chill' because she is already quite chill.
We also get other little instances of interesting man-woman dynamics, like when 'Convincing Star' Suresh Krishna offers words of encouragement to his ex-wife in the middle of a shootout. Even the house help, an old lady who happens to be quite open-minded, has something interesting to contribute.
I was also amused by the antics of Surabhi Lakshmi and Vishnu Agasthya, who get to have their own cool moments. Surabhi's character is as good with jokes as she is with a gun. And I must say that Vishnu Agasthya is slowly proving himself to be an actor to watch out for, considering how he has demonstrated remarkable range in films such as 1001 Nunakal, O.Baby (another 'high-range' thriller starring Dileesh Pothan), or Krishand's excellent new film Sangarsha Gadhana.
Now, as much as I enjoyed the interactions between these characters, I wish the villains were better written, especially Anurag Kashyap's Mangalore-based Don. To me, they didn't seem threatening enough, despite the occasional analogous references and match cuts to wild animals. Say, we are shown a tiger in one scene, but the man who shows up in the next scene doesn't quite have the same matching aura or ferocity. The one scene that affected me emotionally doesn't even involve a human being.
Rifle Club is essentially a home invasion thriller of the good kind, drawing a lot from Westerns and John Woo movies. But at the same time, the stakes don't seem as high as one expects, despite all the buildup we see earlier. The long climactic shootout is staged decently, but the cathartic pleasures don't feel wholesome enough because, as I said, we don't get to see the villains do enough nasty stuff to make us hate them; they lack the novelty factor. I mean, snorting coke and acting all hyper isn't exactly new.
Having said that, I must admit that I did enjoy my time with this film, despite feeling like having a non-vegetarian meal with the necessary flavour but not enough pieces. I also loved the retro look of the film and the way the actors' faces are composed, most notably during the confrontations involving vehicles and, of course, the final shootout. Needless to say, Aashiq Abu has proven himself to be an efficient cinematographer, too. The film also sounds good, thanks to Rex Vijayan's music, which makes its presence known only in places where it's needed.
Film: Rifle Club (Malayalam)
Director: Aashiq Abu
Cast: Dileesh Pothan, Vijayaraghavan, Vishnu Agasthya, Surabhi Lakshmi, Vani Vishwanath, Darshana Rajendran, Anurag Kashyap, Hanumankind
Rating: 3.5/5