A man is known by the company he keeps, we are told in school. Is there a different way of looking at this? Can you be defined by your enemy? There’s another: Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. The core of Dhruva (remade from the Tamil film, Thani Oruvan ) is about two men who have these lines of thoughts. How they interpret it makes them polar opposites.
Much before that mandatory intro song for the hero, we get an idea of the antagonist. The film opens with the birth of Siddharth Abhimanyu (Arvind Swamy). At one level, this story is his biopic.
Elsewhere, a bunch of zealous trainee cops led by Dhruva (Ram Charan) sneak out of police academy and help crack petty crimes at night. These segments may play out like a regular ‘mass’ film where small incidents establish the hero’s capability, before the antagonist arrives. Look closely and there’s a pattern emerging. The petty crimes are ways to cover up something larger.
Thinking logically, one could question how a trainee cop maintains his own crime research lab under wraps. You can also question how he arrives at his primary targets accurately. In his pursuit of organised crime, hasn’t he ever met dead ends? This story doesn’t dwell on it. For, there’s a lot more to unravel.
It takes a while before we see the glib-talking criminal, a scientist with a Padma Shri award to boot. It’s laughable how Dhruva walks in freely into Siddharth’s lab. But the screenplay is fast enough to not let you focus on niggles.
Once the paths of the two men are established, a cat and mouse game follows, with the wicked one being a step ahead. A lot gets discussed. The nexus between pharma companies and politicians, unethical drug testing on infants and so on.
In a conventional story, there would be a reason to justify Siddharth’s twisted journey. In a passing statement, as a teen, we understand he didn’t want to remain poor. He shows no remorse, not even when he faces his father in an awkward situation much later.
Arvind Swamy aces his role and makes Siddharth Abhimanyu the most impactful character in the film. In contrast, the hero looks one-dimensional — an epitome of all that’s good. Ram Charan looks intense, brings in a great deal of physical agility that defines his cop part. Dhruva is a script-driven film, and it’s good to see Charan take it up. The taut screenplay is enough to keep the audience hooked.
Dhruva gets better as it progresses and it’s tough to tear your eyes away from the screen. The only time it pauses is when it breaks into songs. They’ve been shot beautifully, but the story is so good you don’t need those breaks. Rakul Preet is charming, but you wish she had a better role. She plays a forensic expert, but will be remembered for the ‘Pareshanura’ song.
Navdeep, Posani and Nasser are befitting in their parts. The father-son track (Posani-Arvind Swamy) is interesting. You understand Posani’s plight when he gets called ‘imbecile’ and ‘incorrigible’ by his son and doesn’t understand one bit.
When Dhruva Vs. Siddharth battle comes to end, it feels like having read an unputdownable thriller.
Dhruva
Cast : Ram Charan, Arvind Swamy, Rakul Preet Singh
Direction : Surender Reddy
Music : Hip-hop Tamizha
Rating : 3.5
