Rifle Club Review: Aashiq Abu’s Experiment With Hunter And Hunted (Image-Instagram/aashiqabu)
What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? What happens when a historic rifle club where all of them are expert shooters comes under the threat of an outside group that wants to hunt them with modern (of the 1990s) weapons? What happens when a group of conflicting tribes is attacked by outsiders? In a Western vs. Western Ghats standoff, Rifle Club, directed by Aashiq Abu and starring an ensemble cast that consists of Vijayaraghavan, Dileesh Pothan, Anurag Kashyap, Vani Viswanath, Surabhi Lakshmi, Darshana Rajendran, Vineeth Kumar, Unnimaya Prasad, Vishnu Agasthya, Hanumankind, and others, will answer these questions.
This gripping story of survival, in Rifle Club, you will see directors like Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Ram Gopal Varma, Anurag Kashyap, Amal Neerad, and Lokesh Kanagaraj coming to the scenic location of Wayanad to face a group of outsiders led by a vengeful arms dealer and his gang.
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The crux of the Rifle Club is guns and hunting. It is interesting to see, with full credits to the writing by Syam Pushkaran, Dileesh Karunakaran, and Suhas, how the conversations of the entire movie are surrounded by the quality, legacy, and use of hunting weapons.
The movie is well arranged with a perfect cohesion of casting, dialogues, cinematography, action, and occasional laughs. In Rifle Club, you won’t find the Ashiq Abu known for directing Daddy Cool, Salt N’ Pepper, 22 Female Kottayam, Da Thadiya, Idukki Gold, Rani Padmini, Mayaanadhi, Virus, Naaradan, and Neelavelicham.
Instead, you’ll see an Ashiq Abu who has grown from the lessons learnt through the missteps of Gangster. His earlier movies explored either socially relevant themes or human relationships (Salt N’ Pepper, Mayaanadhi) or challenged the stereotypes. It was in Gangster where he tried to check the waters of the mafia and related elements but failed heavily in that. Here, he looks like he learnt his lesson.
In the acting front, all the characters justify the casting director’s decision, especially Dileesh Pothen, Anurag Kashyap, Hanumankind, Vani Viswhanath, and Vijayaraghavan. For Dileesh, Rifle Club is an extension of what he has done in O Baby, especially with the background of the forest and the identity of Avaran that gives away some similarities to Baby. On the other hand, Hanumankind, with the persona he has built, which denotes wit, cultural pride, and a quirky approach to everyday issues that endears him to a wide audience, does not represent what he is famous for as a musician in the role of Bheera, son of an arms dealer, but has done a satisfying job in his debut.
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Anurag Kashyap’s Malayalam debut, with a character in the nature of what he had asked his heroes to do in his avatar as director, though not bad, is simply limited to the villain mannerisms.
There are three drawbacks in Aashiq Abu’s Rifle Club project. One, the predictable storyline, which becomes obvious after the first shot is fired, is the human vs. human conflict. Two, very few characters are introduced properly. The scene, in which the members of the club are introduced (one occasion where the detailing could have been apt), feels like the director pressed the fast forward button and missed the chance. Three, the ending. Though the viewer is clear on what is going to happen, the mad rush and noisy ending is a buzzkill.
Timeline verdict: Rifle Club is about guns, hunting, and the survival instincts of the human as a group. Except for the predictability and limited detailing, this Ashiq Abu movie is a good thriller that has proper descriptions of ideas and guns elaborated.
Direction, Cinematography: Aashiq Abu
Writers: Syam Pushkaran, Dileesh Karunakaran, Suhas
Music: Rex Vijayan
Cast: Vijayaraghavan, Dileesh Pothan, Anurag Kashyap, Vani Viswanath, Surabhi Lakshmi, Darshana Rajendran, Suresh Krishna, Vineeth Kumar, Unnimaya Prasad, Vishnu Agasthya, Senna Hegde, Hanumankind, Ramzan Muhammed.
