When you make a movie with a title that boasts of a region or a place, it becomes very mandatory to involve the original nativity, the word Rangoon is synonymous to many Tamilians for history speaks itself. Rajkumar the debutant director treats 'Rangoon' with utmost care deep diving into the characters that hold the essence of the movie, brings an interesting take on underworld setting that can question a man on his character, as bad or good. Hands down, this is simply the best of Gautam Karthik’s act, he sheds that chocolate boy image by a large margin to something grittier.

North Madras and the people around, it continues to arouse interest, no wonder the directors flock over to get a grip of its vibe. Rangoon’s script works mainly for its characterisation and interesting screenplay, the 2 hour run time is is thoroughly engaging.

Three friends who get into a web of underworld Gold mafia come in terms with a tricky situation, how they get out of it is 'Rangoon' in a nutshell. Gautam Karthik the hero gets a makeover as a lad who spent his childhood in Burma, comes back to the country for a job that brings him trouble. His character is etched as someone who keeps guessing the game of "What’s good and what’s bad", he takes his life as how it treats him back with respect and finally rises to the occasion.

Smuggling Gold is 'Rangoon’s underlying vibe, Rajkumar does a brilliant job in getting into maximum detailing by taking special attention scene to scene. He does not give room for extensive commercial dosage by high speed chases or twists, instead he engages with the screenplay by detailing how the smuggling itself takes place, which is something fairly new for Tamil mainstream cinema. You don’t get to see Gautam Karthik as a hero who bears kilos of gold on one hand and beats around cops, rowdies to get the better hand. Instead he fits into the role of a light-hearted slum trader fair and square. The hero with his friends look to pull off on last job for their boss before settling down, but fate has different plans and takes them on a journey of friendship, betrayal and what not.

The clear winners of the movie are Raj Kumar’s direction, excellent acting from the lead cast and crisp editing. As again, dark toned Gautam Karthik grabs his best till date, his home work is very obvious on screen and that’s any hero’s reward. Sana is dead drop gorgeous, perfect lip sync and adds color to the movie. But what’s her role is anybody’s guess, a director so good at detailing falls for commercial love angle instead of adding weightage to her character. There are a few scenes where you don’t see the usual lady love running behind the hero and instead talks some sense into him, you expect a lot more scenes like this but sadly not. Lallu and Daniel are brilliant, they add solid essence. Siddique and rest of the cast too make their presence wanted.

Rajkumar Periyasamy, a former associate director of renowned AR Murugadoss excels in research of the story’s content, he is yet another debut directors to watch out for. Taking into a familiar smuggling and illegal trading concept, he treats the storyline with respect by bringing in decent twists and turns. Yathirga and Foreign return songs make the mark along with fitting BGM buildup. Prasanna and Vijay’s editing makes the movie crisp, although the second half could have been better.

Verdict: Extensive research, in depth characterisation and solid performances makes this film worth your money and time.