Cinema mirrors society. ‘Ranam’ takes a cue from this, bringing to fore the issues bogging farmers — a high rate of suicides due to land grabbing. All this comes at the time when farmers at Delhi’s borders are still holding protests against the three new farm laws.
The story is about four college students who embark on a mission to help farmers who have been troubled by the corrupt irrigation minister. Aiding them in the cause is an eccentric cop (Chiranjeevi Sarja) and a man who can’t stand farmers being disrespected (Chetan Ahimsa).
In a scene, youth hack into the irrigation minister’s account and transfer money to the farmers’ accounts. In another scene, Chetan petitions to the prime minister about the issues faced by farmers and the latter says that he will hold a “discussion” in the Lok Sabha. Through these scenes, it appears like the story is slamming the government. The film’s good ideas are let down by sloppy filmmaking.
The show-stealer is Chiranjeevi Sarja. The scenes with him are the most memorable ones because the actor breathes life into the character. If you thought Salman’s Chulbul Pandey was a fun-loving, eccentric cop performance, wait till you see Sarja in ‘Ranam’.
Had Chiranjeevi been here today, watching ‘Ranam’ would have been a different experience for every fan, who says: “Chiru will be dearly missed.”