Aavesham (2024) is a Malayalam action-comedy set in Bengaluru, following three cheerful youngsters — Aju, Bibi and Shanavas — who arrive in the big city full of big dreams to begin their engineering studies. Their excitement fades quickly when hostile seniors make their lives miserable with relentless ragging and public humiliation. Desperate for protection and a little pride, the boys decide they need a powerful friend who can teach their tormentors a lesson.

That search leads them to Ranga, a flamboyant local gangster dressed in white, draped in gold chains and forever surrounded by his fiercely loyal gang. Eccentric, unpredictable and oddly affectionate, Ranga takes the boys under his wing and settles their scores in his own theatrical style. In return, the students are pulled into his world of late-night parties, endless drinks and roaring celebrations, enjoying a life they had only ever imagined from a distance.

As the fun continues, the boys slowly glimpse the other side of Ranga’s world — his sudden rages, his hunger for attention and respect, and the danger that follows men who live outside the law. What began as an exciting shortcut to status starts to feel like a trap, and the friends realise that walking away from a man like Ranga may be far harder than befriending him ever was.

Aavesham works because Ranga is both hilarious and faintly frightening, and because the film never loses sight of the three boys at its heart. Powered by Fahadh Faasil’s electric performance and a pulsating soundtrack, it is a wild, energetic entertainer about friendship, peer pressure and the heavy price of chasing borrowed power — a reminder that shortcuts through the underworld always come with a bill to pay in the end.

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