B. Tech Story: A bunch of engineering students in
Bengaluru struggle to get through the course due to their lackadaisical
attitudes and frequent skirmishes within the college. An incident
outside the campus though shakes them to reality and they are forced to
confront it through a trial by fire.
B. Tech Review:
Mridul Nair's debut directorial BTech is backed by ingredients that has
more often than not spelled success in the box office recently - a
youth-centric plot about engineering students, Asif Ali-Aparna
Balamurali combo and a Bengaluru setting to top it off. However, Mridul
ably uses these elements to cleverly deceive the viewer of what he
serves through the film.
The movie is filled to the brim with
actors such as Asif Ali, Aparna Balamurali, Sreenath Bhasi, Niranjana
Anoop, Deepak Parambol, Arjun Ashokan, Saiju Kurup and Anoop Menon to
name a few.
The film starts off by introducing engineering
students of a Bengaluru college. Some of them including Anand (Asif),
Nizar (Deepak Parumbol) and Jojo (Sreenath Bhasi) have been studying the
course for the past eight years. Their skirmishes with the rival gangs,
camaraderie, lackadaisical attitude to their course as well as their
lives and their personal problems are all shown in the first half.
Asif
plays a stubborn senior who is the gang's leader. Harishree Ashokan's
son Arjun, who plays Azad, gets a meaty role as a level-headed first
year student who join the indolent gang of seniors.
The plot of
the first half is haphazard as there is too much happening. The script
packs in most of what is expected of a film about BTech students, along
with Bengaluru's party scene. One minute the story shows the characters
fighting with their rivals, the next they get away to North Kerala to
get a taste of simple life without the opulence of Bengaluru life, soon
they are back in Bengaluru and then all of a sudden the plot turns to
the religious bias among the cops in the city.
However, the
second half reveal the true reasons for the lengthy setup, which seemed
pointless at first. An incident involving Azad shakes the city to its
core and quickly highlights the religious bias and judgments among the
authorities. The latter half is also where the crisp edits of Mahesh
Narayan and Abhilash Balachandran make it brilliantly engaging.
The
characters played by Asif, Aparna and Niranjana get a wallop of energy
and they are equally up to the task. A scene where Asif truly emerges as
the leader of his entire college can give you goosebumps. Anoop Menon
delivers in his role as an advocate who questions the cops for their
perceived notions and also a mentor to the engineering students to mine
the skills their education offers.
Rahul Raj's music infuses
freshness to the proceedings of the film, which is 2 hour and 26
minutes long. Some of the comedy in the script though feel forced and
also the romance angle between Asif and Aparna's characters only slacken
the first half, which could have easily been trimmed further and make
the movie engaging from start to finish rather than the last hour.
The
movie does touch upon some relevant topics and makes for a good
one-time watch, thanks in big part to the second half and good songs.
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