Ronth Movie Review: A Deep Dive

Set over a single night shift in a sleepy Kerala town, Ronth follows SI Yohannan (Dileesh Pothan) and his junior officer, CPO Dinnath (Roshan Mathew), as they respond to a series of escalating calls - a domestic violence dispute, a suspicious death at a church, a drunk driver spiralling through the streets. But the calls are really just scaffolding. The real story is the slow, agonising unspooling of Yohannan’s psyche. He’s a man haunted by a past mistake (a death in custody he refuses to discuss), drowning his guilt in cheap liquor and snide remarks aimed at his partner. Dinnath, earnest and still idealistic, tries to maintain procedure, but every radio dispatch deepens the rift between them. As the night wears on, the line between duty and personal vendetta blurs, culminating in an alleyway confrontation that feels less like a climax and more like a confession.

Shahi Kabir, known previously for his atmospheric short films, brings a documentary-like authenticity to Ronth. The camera often lingers - on sweat, on half-empty glasses, on the dashboard clock ticking toward dawn - and that patience is the film’s greatest strength. There are no car chases choreographed for spectacle; when the patrol jeep screeches to a halt, it’s because the characters are out of breath, not because the director wants a crash.

Dileesh Pothan delivers a performance that should have been award-season shorthand. Yohannan is a walking collapse - sallow eyes, a voice that cracks between command and apology, a body that seems to fold inward under the weight of his uniform. Pothan doesn’t play him as a tragic hero; he plays him as a man who has become his worst decision. Opposite him, Roshan Mathew’s Dinnath is the quiet counterweight - frustrated, yes, but also genuinely trying to keep a dying man afloat. Their chemistry is built on suppressed anger and the long silences of men who don’t know how to say “help.”

The supporting cast is uniformly excellent. Sudhi Koppa’s Pastor is a chilling cameo of false righteousness, and Krisha Kurup as Anu brings a fleeting but harrowing humanity to the domestic-violence call. But the script, co-written by Kabir and Rajesh Madhavan, occasionally relies too much on dialogue that spells out themes already visible in the actors’ faces. A late-night argument in the jeep - where Yohannan monologues about “the devil wearing a badge” - feels written rather than felt.

Still, the film’s craft is undeniable. Cinematographer Arun James captures the sickly neon of late-night tea stalls and the oppressive darkness of rural roads with an eye that turns the mundane into the menacing. The sound design is a standout: every static crackle on the police radio, every distant shout, every scrape of a boot on gravel is placed with surgical precision. The score, by Sushin Shyam, is sparse - a low drone that occasionally swells to underscore dread - and it never overpowers.

Ronth isn’t trying to be Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum or Drishyam. It’s a chamber piece inside a moving vehicle, a study of two men trapped not just in a patrol car but in the wreckage of their own choices. It demands your attention and doesn’t apologise for its bleakness. For anyone willing to sit with the discomfort, it’s deeply rewarding.

Pros

• Dileesh Pothan delivers a raw, unflinching performance that anchors the entire film
• Roshan Mathew provides a nuanced, empathetic counterbalance
• Atmosphere is thick and immersive - sound design and cinematography are top-tier
• Script avoids melodrama, letting silences do the heavy lifting
• Tight 121-minute runtime that never drags even when it’s slow

Cons

• Key dialogue in the second act veers into explicitness, undercutting the subtlety
• Supporting characters (Pastor, DYSP Jacob J) feel sketched rather than fleshed out
• Pacing may alienate viewers expecting a conventional crime thriller with plot twists
• Climactic resolution lands with a whimper, not a roar - some will find it anticlimactic

Ronth is a difficult film to love in the moment - it’s grim, frequently uncomfortable, and refuses to offer easy catharsis. Yet it’s precisely that refusal that makes it memorable. Shahi Kabir has crafted a police procedural that isn’t about the crime but about the slow corrosion of the men who fight it. Dileesh Pothan and Roshan Mathew give two of the finest performances in recent Malayalam cinema, and the film’s technical craft is near-flawless. It’s not for everyone - if you need your plots tidy and your heroes redeemed, you’ll leave frustrated. But for those who appreciate cinema as character autopsy, Ronth is a quietly devastating, essential watch. On a scale of 1 to 10, it settles firmly at a 7.5 - and that’s a high mark for a film that never once tries to please.