Malayalam cinema has been on a roll in the past few months. With many back-to-back hits and each movie having a different story to convey, this industry has become a hotbed of experimentation and fresh stories. Jithu Madhavan is known for last year’s blockbuster hit Romancham, which uniquely explored the horror-comedy genre. Basking on the success of his first film, Jithu Madhavan brings Aavesham, which loosely translates to ‘charge up.’ Aavesham is about a group of college students who become acquainted with a local gangster, and have their lives changed forever. Released on April 11th, 2024, it is a Malayalam language film.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did The Boys Move Out Of The Hostel?
Aavesham begins with a bunch of young boys joining a college in Bangalore, away from home for the first time. The whole idea was to have full freedom in a city where no one would know them. Aju, Bibin, and Shantham were planning to move into the college hostel when a clerk convinced their parents to let the kids live in the boarding facility right outside the college premises, where there was less chance of the children getting into the wrong company. The parents were gullible enough to believe the clerk, and the three boys found happiness in a life away from rules where they could indulge in alcohol and smoking regularly. All three boys were surrounded by first-year students, just like themselves, and stayed away from their seniors, who were ragging all the freshmen regularly.
Who Got Ragged In College?
One of their classmates was brutally ragged by the senior’s gang. Agonized by the control of seniors, Aju, Shanthan, and Bibin purposely rubbed them off the wrong way to showcase the presence of other alpha males on the campus. This move backfired as these seniors kidnapped and physically abused them for several days. These boys were broken down physically and emotionally and were made a part of the senior’s gang. This was probably an initiation process, but Aju was not happy with being humiliated the way they were.
How Does Aju Plan To Retaliate?
Even though the seniors were happy to have the three boys and others under their control, Aju wanted to rebel against them and their influence. While pretending to be respectful of the seniors, Aju and Bibin began to hatch a plan to undermine the bullies and annihilate their power on campus. Aju comes up with the plan to become friends with a local gangster and his rowdies and use them to exact revenge on the seniors. In the pursuit of befriending gangsters, the boys began to hang out at shady local bars. After many unsuccessful pursuits, they finally met Ranga, who was a powerful gangster with many men at his disposal willing to fight.
Who Was Ranga?
Ranga was a rich local gangster with many strong men at his beckon. The man had a lot of influence in the city and claimed to have become rich by selling off his land to the authorities to build the Bangalore Airport. The boys were fascinated by the life led by Ranga, who always had Amban by his side, sharing his notorious stories.
Many years ago, Ranga seemed to have killed many people after joining Reddy, another dreaded gangster of his time. Rangan had also killed his brother, whose body he had buried to avoid suspicion, and painted the wall red with blood. The kids weren’t willing to believe this story, as it felt too exaggerated. Ranga never stopped being a gang leader, but he stopped beating and killing people when his mother walked away from his life and died a while later, leaving him with a void because he could never apologize to her. He had hired men to do his bidding but continued to be the most dreaded gangster in the city.
How Did Ranga Help The Boys?
Ranga and his gang took a liking to the boys and began to treat them as younger brothers. Once the three boys joined the group, their studies and classes went for a toss as they spent many nights hanging out with Ranga and his gang, fascinated by the lives they led. Each day was a different story, and the boys had no plans to cut their friendship with Ranga, who had begun to be protective of the boys, especially Bibin, who was very close to his mother.
The boys find a time to reveal their concerns regarding a senior in college, and Ranga takes their problem personally. On Holi, the senior and his gang were beaten to a pulp by Ranga’s men, and they left the campus claiming the boys should not be touched. The result of the fight established the boys as the most powerful people on campus. The boys were offered a home, a bike, a fridge full of alcohol, and a cabinet filled with cigarettes by Ranga as a token of his love.
Were The Boys Rusticated?
Aju, Bibin, and Shanthan had a reality check when the new director of the college threatened to expel them from college if they did not clean up their act, which included cutting off ties with the gangster and passing all the examinations. The boys took the threat seriously, but they were not sure how to convey this concern to Ranga, who made them an integral part of their gang. The boys were off beating people up on his orders. Ranga was treated like a god, but suddenly he and his gang became the bane of their existence, and the boys could never find time to study for their exams, which were only 15 days away.
Did Ranga Distract Them Purposefully?
Ranga had initially asked them to dedicate their time to studies, and he purposely never distracted them. He was also unaware of the soup the boys were in, as he found many activities for the boys to indulge in, which included his high octane birthday party. Ranga also got the boys some prostitutes in the hope of helping them become more comfortable with women in general. The boys at this juncture had seen a lot of bloodshed and Ranga’s crazy obsessive-violent streak, which made them delay the talk with him.
Why Did The Boys Move Out Of Ranga’s Home?
Aju, Bibin, and Shanthan were shocked to see Ranga getting rid of their men for abandoning their gang. The boys were also shocked to find the famed red wall and the badly sealed floor in their home, which proves all the stories shared by Amban about Ranga were true. This was the last straw for the boys, as they couldn’t bring themselves to be a part of the gang that fought for them. Out of fear and desperation, the boys moved out of the house given to them by Ranga and began to concentrate on their studies. The boys kept their phones turned off to avoid being contacted by Ranga or his men. Ranga, on the other hand, was worried that the boys had been harmed and was frantically searching for them. Bibin had switched on the phone to speak to his mother when he received Ranga’s phone call, who asked them to meet him at the home they’d been living in.
Why Does Reddy Contact The Boys?
Reddy was Ranga’s old boss, and the aging man was livid at his ex-employee/hitman having stolen his identity by dressing like him and taking over the city as a dreaded gangster. Reddy wanted to get his hands on Ranga through these three boys when Bibin lost his cool. Bibin was livid at the fact that they were constantly disturbed by the seniors in the early days of the college, and that to get rid of the menace, they’d got into a bigger gang that seemed to not want to let go of them. Reddy did not harm the boys but he provided his contact information to them in case they were in trouble.
Do The Boys Reveal The Truth?
On reaching their old home, Bibin took one for the team and angrily shared his concerns with Ranga. Aju and Shanthan were concerned with their friend’s newfound courage to stand up to the gangster and speak up against the man who offered them everything from the start. Ranga was startled and asked Amban to arrive at the spot. Fearing retribution and possibly a brutal death at the hands of Ranga and his men, Bibin rang up Reddy and his men to kill him, and they arrived in no time. Unbeknownst to Ranga, he tried to protect the boys and decided to face Reddy and his men on his own.
Who Tried To Kill Ranga?
Ranga’s protective nature came to surface when Reddy surrounded the house with his men and decided to face his nemesis on his own. Since Amban and his men had not reached the spot, it was difficult for him to face Reddy since he was not going to beat them up personally. Reddy revealed that it was the three boys who called them up.
Ranga felt betrayed, and the boys finally saw a psychotic side of him that they had not witnessed in all the time they had spent with him. Ranga gave up on his vow of never beating anyone up to show these boys what he was made of, and at his age, he could still take up many men and kill them. Ranga beat up everyone with his signature weapon, a knife with a bottle opener on the other end. The boys were shocked because, if Reddy was killed, they would be Ranga’s next target, and nobody would come to save them. The person who was their savior would become their killer for their betrayal of him.
Did Ranga Kill The Boys?
Ranga killed Reddy, and Amban and the rest reached the spot of the crime soon to realize something went wrong. Ranga had a psychotic episode as he ran around the house with a hammer, his only aim being to kill the boys. Even though it was three boys against one man, the young men knew Ranga could kill them. They had poked the dragon and had to face the fire. Ranga never stopped and did not allow his rowdy men to get involved in the matter.
Ranga was livid at the fact that the boys were responsible for him breaking his years-long vow of not beating anyone, followed by his breakdown over the fact that nobody came to help him while he gave everything in his capacity to the boys to protect them. Ranga was right, as the boys did not reciprocate his hospitality in the right way. Ranga’s anger was justified, but his hunger to kill the boys was not. Ranga’s psychotic episode calmed down when Bibin’s mother called, and she immediately recognized Ranga’s voice, as her son referred to him as his older brother. Ever since Ranga’s mother passed, he could never be harsh to any other maternal figure, which included Bibin’s mom as well. He quietly spoke to his mother, as he did not want her to live the rest of her life without her son by her side. Ranga would have done anything to have his mother next to him, but that was not possible anymore.
Bibin’s mother’s phone call acted as a deciding factor for Ranga, as he chose not to kill the three of them. He gave them his blessing for the upcoming examinations and walked out, which shocked everyone. There were many firsts that the boys witnessed that night; Ranga letting them go was the biggest one. He wanted them to study and pass their exam without any interference from him, and they walked away as heroes rather than villains.
Aavesham ended with the results of the exams being put up at their college. Shanthan passed in all the subjects, but Bibin and Aju failed in one subject. This was a big jump from their earlier results, as they had failed in all the earlier subjects. This was only possible because they put in hard work and chose not to get distracted. As they headed out after learning the results, Ranga, Amban, and their men were waiting at the gate to beat them up. The boys figured Ranga had probably forgotten about their existence, let them go, and considered their mistake a youthful discretion. To their horror, all of them were back to get their revenge for backstabbing them and involving Reddy in the matter. They gave these boys some false hope by remaining incommunicado for many days. As the boys ran for their lives, it was assumed Ranga and Amban were not their friends anymore, and that their wrath had befallen Aju, Bibin, and Shanthan.
