Ravi Bopanna review: Crazy Star Ravichandran's version of the Malayalam hit 'Joseph' is unconvincing, dull

2/5

Story:

Following the death of his ex-wife, retired policeman Ravi Bopanna is forced to employ his famous investigative wits to unravel the mystery behind it. Bopanna is also an alcoholic and desolate, and the investigation brings him further closer to his troubled past, one that is riddled with love, death, and heartbreaks.

Review:

In the interviews leading up to the release of Ravi Bopanna, veteran actor-director V. Ravichandran constantly alluded to the fact that his film will be an intense hark-back to the Prema Loka days. He would assert that his ardent fans will find his Crazy signature on the film prominently and that the experience at the cinema halls will be unlike any other, although Ravi Bopanna is an official remake of the 2018 Malayalam hit Joseph. In myriad ways, the characterization of Joseph is pitch-perfect for someone like Ravichandran who has somewhat owned the forlorn lover space in Kannada cinema for many decades. On the other hand, he has never really directed a bona fide crime thriller of the Joseph kind so the stage seemed perfectly set up for a new kind of Crazy Star experience. But does he deliver on the promise? Well, not really.

One of the main concerns with Ravi Bopanna is the lack of coherence. The Malayalam original featured two distinct tracks in the narrative, one of the investigations and the other of Joseph’s despair-filled existence, and the film’s charm mainly lay in how these tracks were merged at the interval point. The Kannada remake, on the other hand, seems quite less bothered about the underlying plot and instead feels like a self-serving vehicle for V. Ravichandran to showcase his maverick. For starters, Ravichandran decides to turn the film’s narrator, one who is clad in all-black attire and wields a wooden hammer like a court judge at every opportunity. The narrator shows up on the screen persistently, trying to imbue the abstract and bizarre into an otherwise straightforward story, and while these sequences seem jarring and devoid of any purpose, in the beginning, it becomes clear enough eventually that they are the film that Ravichandran promised! For those who bought the ticket expecting a faithful remake of the Malayalam crime drama, Ravi Bopanna is as quirky a retelling as possible.

That said, the Crazy Star is never reticent in lending the romance track of the story his trademark touch. While Joseph featured flashbacks of the titular character’s love travails but kept the narrative mostly linear, Ravi Bopanna is intentionally haphazard as the flashes of the past rush in at odd moments to disturb the tranquility. Despite this being a curious-sounding deviation from the original, the writer in Ravichandran fails to justify the sequences because they never really aid the ‘crime’ aspect of things to gain traction towards the end. If you haven’t watched the original, it is highly likely that the plot of Ravi Bopanna comes across as rushed and dull.

As far as the acting performances are concerned, Radhika and Kavya Shetty feature as Ravi Bopanna’s loves of the past and there’s a good chance these sequences would make you cringe a little. Aside from being dolled up and in manic love with the protagonist, their presence serves almost no purpose in the story. Though V. Ravichandran brings his vast experience to the table, he fails to shed his real-life image and become a convincing central character who is vulnerable and hopeless.

Kiccha Sudeep makes a friendly but important cameo appearance in the film as the sincere lawyer Vidyut Verma (Nedumudi Venu played the same part in Joseph). Although he tries his best to salvage the drab affair, there is very little left to him.

Verdict:

Ravi Bopanna might interest those who haven’t watched the Malayalam film, Joseph. While the film’s tone, pacing, or treatment are nowhere close to the original, the Crazy Star elements might help them wade through the lackluster writing and execution. But should you seek a compelling film that’s worth your time and money, this may not be it.