T-Series Films, Roox Media and Getaway Pictures’ Dange (UA) is the story of two childhood friends-turned-foes, who meet after many years while in the same medical college.
Xavier (Harshvardhan Rane) studies in St. Martin’s University. Yuva (Ehan Bhatt) joins the same college. Since the two used to study in the same school and a childhood memory had left Yuva with bitter memories of Xavier, Yuva now wants to get even with Xavier to settle old scores. Student politics forms an integral part of the story.
The film is inspired by true incidents. Bejoy Nambiar’s story is not novel as one has seen films with sub-plots of student ragging etc., which is a very important part of the story in this film. The screenplay, written by Bejoy Nambiar, Mithila Hegde, Francis Thomas and Neil Julkian Balthazar, with additional screenplay by Anirudh Ramesh and Saraswati L., is engaging but except for the campus scenes, the core drama doesn’t offer much novelty or freshness. Even the campus scenes look too stretched at several places in spite of being fresh. The build-up to the climax, especially, is so long that the climax loses its impact. Frankly, the tension between Xavier and Yuva looks a bit too forced. Another major drawback is that the viewers are unable to take sides as both, Xavier and Yuva, are right in their own place and, viewed differently, are being childishly stubborn about an incident which transpired years ago! In the climax, Xavier asking Yuva to beat him up to settle their childhood scores looks quite ridiculous and weird in view of the horrendous action drama unfolding between Xavier’s group and Yuva’s group. Aren’t they even bothered about the lives of their respective friends? After all, how big can one’s ego be? Another drawback is the sheer helplessness of the college authorities, on display. There seems to be nothing like disciplinary action, police complaint, rustication, etc. Agreed, the authorities are concerned about the bad name the college would get if things came out in the open, but which college would let students kill each other (that’s a possibility, given the battle which breaks out between the two groups) just so that its reputation is saved? Punit Sheth and Bejoy Nambiar’s dialogues are lovely.
Harshvardhan Rane does a fine job as Xavier. Ehan Bhatt acts ably in the role of Yuva. Both the heroes project the right attitude as per the demand of their characters. T.J. Bhanu gives a good account of herself as Gayatri. Nikita Dutta is endearing and delivers a free-spirited performance as Rishika. Taniya Kalra has her moments as Ambika. Mridul Das is good as Arjun. Zoa Morani impresses in the role as Siddhi. Nakul Sahdev makes his presence felt as Bosco. Siddharth Menon leaves a fine impression as Kabir. Keshav Lokwani is effective as Bala. Ruchi Malviya does an efficient job as Ritu. Shreema Upadhyaya is natural as Bhama. John Vijay (as the SHO), Danish Sait (as Father Francis), R.J. Kisna (as Napolean), Ekansh (as the warden), Athul (as Girish), Dineesh Biju (as Faridoon), Vivek Rajagopal (as Vikas), Paavani Atrey (as Anusuya), Omna (as Sister Sarah), K.C. Shankar (as Mukul), Sahitya (as Chirag), Jyoti Varma (as Komal), Arun Thakur (as Harsh), Teena Singh (as Bhavna), Jeeva Subramaniam (as Asma), Surjyashikha (as Ambika’s friend), Payal (as Rishika’s friend), and the rest are adequate.
Bejoy Nambiar’s direction is stylish. His shot takings are very eye-filling. He has also extracted good work from out of his actors. However, because of the lack of novelty in subject, the impact of his stylised narration is diluted to a large extent. Actually, Nambiar is unable to get the participation of the audience in the drama. Background music (by Modern Tape Scores (Harish Venkat and Sachidanand Sankaranarayanan) and Gaurav Godkhindi) is quite nice. Jimshi Khalid and Presley Oscar D’Souza’s cinematography is wonderful. Riyaz-Habib’s action and stunts are raw and quite realistic. Production designing (Lalgudi N. Ilayaraja and Manasi Chaware) is fair. Priyank Prem Kumar’s editing is excellent.
On the whole, Dange will go largely unnoticed at the box-office — also because of lack of awareness about the film. Non-starter.
Released on 1-3-’24 at Metro Inox (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: poor. Opening: weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor everywhere.