Director Ashwath Marimuthu delivers a roller-coaster ride which is in equal parts emotional and also a laugh riot. Through the titular protagonist played by a terrific Pradeep Ranganathan Ashwath breaks the troupe of a rowdy boy being cool. The movie also addresses some serious issues like the consequences of taking short cuts without being overtly melodramatic.
Starcast: Pradeep Ranganathan, Anupama Parameswaran, Mysskin, Kayadu Lohar, George Maryan and others
Story, screenplay and direction: Ashwath Marimuthu
Additional story: Pradeep Ranganathan
Producers: Kalpathi S Aghoram, Kalpathi S Ganesh etc
Music: Leon James
Cinematography: Niketh Bommireddy
Running time: 2 hours and 16 minutes
Genre: Comedy/drama
Mainstream cinema often has the habit of fetishizing rowdy boys. They are often looked as cool with girls drooling over them. They are presented in a very flamboyant manner making it look aspirational. The consequences of this kind of behavior isn’t explored much in commercial cinema. The initial portions of Dragon may appear to be a typical fetishizing of a bad boy with a not so likeable protagonist but as the movie progresses the plot switches seamlessly into a morality tale.
The core plot of Dragon is about D Raghavan/ dragon (Pradeep Ranganatham). The movie begins with him getting 96 percent in the 12th board exams. Over the moon Raghavan expresses his love to a girl but she rejects him saying that she only likes rowdy/bad boys. Ranganathan feels depressed leading to a huge change in his behavior. He transforms into a rowdy guy with many backlogs. Anupam Parameswaran as Keerthi plays one of Raghavan’s love interests. Keerthi is seen hugely bestowed with Raghavan’s behavior during college days, they enter into a very serious relationship but the dynamics soon undergo a significant change. Raghavan continuing to be non serious about his career and living of his friends soon gets to her. She agrees to an arranged marriage leaving Raghavan distraught. Consumed by hatred towards Keerthi Raghavan makes a serious decision of doing a high paying job but the path that he takes makes his life hugely chaotic. This is the brief summary of the story.
Pradeep Ranganathan and Anupama Parameswaran from Dragon
A strong aspect of Dragon is the layered characterization of D Raghavan coupled with Pradeep’s stellar act. For a majority of the first half Raghavan comes across as an absolute jerk whether it is fooling the parents by pretending to do a job or living on his friend’s money. Even his reaction when Keerthi decides to marry a more stable guy makes him an obnoxious personality.
In order to get back at Keerthi Raghavan takes a very dangerous shortcut, he climbs up the social ladder by getting a fake degree certificate. Personally too he is on the verge of marrying a rich girl. Everything is going picture perfect but the screenplay takes a huge turn with a fantastic pre interval block.
At this point you have the re entry of Raghavan’s principal Mayilvahan (an excellent Mysskin). Mayilvahan isn’t your usual caricaturist principal. Yes Mayilvahan is a righteous man but at the same time he believes in giving second chances too. Mysskin brings in a lot of warmth to the part. He is someone who is outwardly stern at the same time there is a strong undercurrent of kindness too in how he pushes Raghavan in making him realize the mistakes he had done.
The dynamics between Raghavan and Mayilvahan takes the graph of the second half to an whole new level. The second half also features some important dialogues on how heroism is about doing the right thing. There is a crucial message about redefining heroism as nobility rather than just as success. A key emotional outburst towards the end elevates Dragon to a higher moral plane, something which we don’t generally see in the mass template.
Talking about the comic portions a particular mention must be made of the scenes involving Raghavan’s interview with the boss of a major company Lateral view played by Gautham Vasudeva Menon. Raghavan is just lip syncing to the answers given by a man who is in the same room. The way the entire scenario pan outs is an absolute riot. There is another portion the second half when Pradeep Rangnathan is seen juggling multiple phone calls. On one level it works as a very good tip off to Pradeep Rangnathan’s super hit movie Love Today, at the same time it also works as situational comedy bringing in many chuckles.
Pradeep Ranganathan as already mentioned delivers a stellar act. It is a performance which is many notches above Love Today. He is very successful in making the viewers despise Raghavan, at the same time he also shines in the emotionally charged sequences where Raghavan talks about his numerous wrong doings. Anupama Parameswaran too does well giving good support. She particularly shines in the second half portions. Kayadu Lohar also does a fair job as Raghavan’s prospective bride.
Leon James music and background score also elevate the movie significantly. The one slight drawback of Dragon is the unnecessary guilt of Keerthi in leaving Raghavan. It doesn’t make much sense as she had every reason to leave Raghavan given how obnoxious he was. It feels absurd that Keerthi apologizes to Raghavan. Still this aspect can be ignored as Dragon for most part is both entertaining and has a good message.
