Aavesham (Hindi)
Aavesham is a 2024 Indian Malayalam-language action comedy film written and directed by Jithu Madhavan. It is produced by Fahadh Faasil, Nazriya Nazim, and Anwar Rasheed under their Fahadh Faasil and Friends and Anwar Rasheed Entertainments production banners. The film stars Fahadh, Hipzster, Mithun Jai Sankar, Roshan Shanavas, Sajin Gopu and Midhutty. In the film, three youngsters in Bengaluru befriends a local gangster to help them take revenge on their college bully.
The film was officially announced in March 2023 under the tentative title Production No.1, as it is the maiden venture of the Fahadh Faasil and Friends, and the official title was announced the following May. Principal photography commenced the same month in Bangalore, where it was predominantly shot in before wrapping by late-November. The film has music composed by Sushin Shyam, cinematography handled by Sameer Thahir and editing by Vivek Harshan.
Aavesham was released on 11 April 2024 to critical acclaim from critics with praise for its direction, performances (especially Fahadh Faasil and Sajin Gopu), action sequences, cinematography, music and technical aspects. The film was a commercial success grossing over ₹156 crore against a budget of ₹30 crore.[3] It is currently the sixth highest grossing Malayalam film of all time, third highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2024.
Plot
Aju, Bibi, and Shanthan arrive in Bengaluru from Kerala to pursue a degree in aeronautical engineering. The owner of a private hostel (BK hostel) convinces their parents to let them stay there, warning them that the students of their college aren’t friendly.
They soon find themselves to be bullied by Kutty, a senior psychotic student, and his gang, being humiliated and brutally beaten by them after being taken to a garage. Bibi and Aju try to forget the incident but are unable to. Aju seeks revenge and leads his friends to multiple bars in search of gangsters, eventually befriending Ranjith “Ranga” Gangadharan, a powerful and eccentric Malayali–Kannadiga gangster and his strong and funny henchman Ambaan.
They become friends with Ranga, who is revealed to be good-hearted and protective of the boys and his followers. However, he doesn’t take part in violence himself due to a promise made to his late mother. Ranga tells them to focus on their studies but the boys insist on going to fights with Ranga as they see it as an opportunity to strengthen their bond with Ranga. Ambaan also tells the boys chronicles of Ranga’s past where Ranga used to take part in violence and tells them about how he killed his brother and buried him in the kitchen of his house and painted his blood on the wall. When Bibi confesses to Ranga about the incident with Kutty, Ranga and his gang unleash their full fury during the college Holi celebration, beating up Kutty and his gang in front of everyone.
One night after a night out with Ranga (which was usually bar visits or fight spots), Bibi leaves his phone in Ranga’s car. The next morning, Bibi’s mother happens to call him. Ranga attends the call and Bibi’s mother tells him that Bibi had mentioned that he thinks of Ranga as his own brother which makes Ranga grow even more fond of the boys. He shows them his tools, guns and takes them to different fights because he thinks he keeps them happy by doing so. The trio face expulsion (or rustication) after being unable to pass exams and because of their association with Ranga, but are given a second chance on a condition that they pass all their future exams and ensure that their goon friends stay away from the college.
Their association with Ranga begins to affect their studies as Ranga keeps involving them in his lifestyle of fights and parties. One night, the trio realise that the house Ranga had given them has a corpse (that of Ranga’s own brother who’d been killed by Ranga himself) buried in the kitchen just as Ambaan had told them in his pride filled stories. After this discovery, they get scared to live in that house and try everything they can to stay away from the house. Their worries escalate when they visit their old hostel and the warden requests them to accompany him to collect money from his loan takers in order to threaten them (indirectly implying that the boys have become goons due to their association with ranga). After this, they get abducted by Reddy, Ranga’s ex boss who accuses Ranga of stealing his identity and seeks their help to eliminate him. He gives them a visiting card and tells them to call him when Ranga is alone. They feel so fed up and decide on cutting ties with Ranga to avoid becoming goons like him. They try talking to Ranga about their plans of staying away from Ranga and studying in order to pass all exams, but get scared when they witness him threatening to kill two of his ‘Hindi‘ gang members who wanted to quit the gang. Filled with fright and unable to handle staying in the house, the trio switch off their phones and leave for a different hostel in Tumkur, where they manage to study peacefully.
Meanwhile, Ranga fears that the boys have been kidnapped or hurt and frantically searches for them. After seeing his desperate attempts to find them, Bibi finally decides to confess to Ranga, telling him that they only befriended him to keep away Kutty and his gang and how negatively he had impacted their life after that chance encounter. A now-heartbroken Ranga calls his gang to the house. The anxious trio, now fearing for their life, call Reddy and his gang in order to get rid of Ranga’s presence in their life.
Reddy and his goons arrive before Ranga’s gang; and Ranga realises that the boys had double-crossed him. Distraught at their betrayal, he breaks his mother’s vow of non-violence and goes on a rampage, killing all of Reddy goons and Reddy himself. He then chases the boys across the house, threatening to kill them. By that time, Ranga’s goons also arrive at the house, ready to kill the boys, but Ranga locks the house from inside. He starts to cry, saying that he kept the boys with him as no one had gotten close to him in his life unless they needed something like money or free booze from him. Realizing their mistake, they apologize to Ranga. He begrudgingly leaves them telling him that he and his gang are cutting ties with them and threatens them to pass the exams.
Aju and Bibi are unable to clear one paper, while Shanthan clears all his papers. They encounter Ranga (Ranga is now dressed in all black to showcase his new identity) and his gang outside the college who humorously punish Aju, Bibi and Shanthan stating Aju and Bibi’s inability to pass their exams by running after them with sticks.