A Story of Redemption that needed to be told | Dragon Movie Review | Pradeep Ranganathan

Pradeep Ranganathan in and as Dragon

Dragon, starring Pradeep Ranganathan, set the screens on fire with a storming 50 crore Box Office on its opening weekend. The story kickstarts with Raghavan a.k.a Dragon getting rusticated from his college for his abysmal behaviour.

A very relatable troublemaker spends his days shooting and watching reels only to wake up when the breakup-bell rings. His instant need to become a millionaire after a breakup and the quick fix of obtaining a fake degree to get a job, fits his character sketch perfectly.

The scenes with his father, played by George Maryan, was a punch in the gut. The innocence he emulated in contrast to the sly Dragon was a precursor to the climax when the Father made a whole theatre weep in happy tears.

Pradeep Ranganathan and Kayadu Lohar in Dragon

The women did their job perfectly with Keerthi, played by Premam fame Anupama Parameshwaran and Pallavi played by Kayadu Lohar. They stuck to their assigned roles - Keerthi being a polished professor and Pallavi, playing a shallow, wealthy fiancé. Gautham Menon playing a slick IT Boss was all things class. As Pradeep mentioned at the Audio Launch, "Gautham Menon resembled his own heroes in real life".

Mysskin, playing the Principal, ate and burped the character as he ended the movie with the loudest proclamation of Director Ashwath Marimuthu's one-liner for Dragon - Success and Failure is just a figment of your perspective.

Archana Kalpathi, Executive Producer of AGS Productions, who insisted on Actor Radhika playing Pradeep's mother in Love Today, has aced the casting game in Dragon again by roping in Gautham Menon, Mysskin, KS Ravikumar and Sneha Prasanna in a special appearance.

Mysskin as College Principal

Raghavan and Keerthi's relationship arc is a lesson to all upcoming filmmakers to write the post-breakup scenes with dignity. The audience experienced this last in Director Cheran's Autograph. The post interval magic of Raghavan becoming a student again was unexpected and the movie stuck to its realistic chord despite the heightened comedy track and Pradeep- Ranganathan-certified-panic-theatrics.

The movie addresses a lot of soulful topics like guilt, second chances, handling a failure and the power to rise above it. Most importantly, it conveys how shades of grey can never turn black if a person wills it.

Though Dragon seemed like a boy with no ethics, he chose the higher road at the pinnacle of his success. The irony behind such life choices are, there is never a grand public display of them. They are lost behind closed doors.

Reminded us of a famous quote, "Will you choose integrity even when no one is watching?"