'Dragon' Review: An immensely enjoyable entertainer on morality, through Ashwath's smartness, with shortcomings.

In his sophomore directorial, Ashwath Marimuthu follows up his well written debut film Oh My Kadavule, with another terrifically penned and executed Dragon. The smartness did not just lie in the film, but also in the way it garnered the empty excitement around it.

Ashwath Marimuthu, just like his first attempt takes his own sweet time to set things up, rig up the moments to blast out later and his writing surprises us in so many ways. He clearly gets the pulse of using trends, internet people, makes them meaningful and gives it a presence through his writing. The execution does falter at many places in the first half, owing to the surface level flow of scenes, but...with all the needed set-ups. 

Dragon does stutter in its initial portions. For a film that's almost an anti-thesis to whatever it used for its projection, the film does make fun of the borderline worst actions of its protagonist. The initial choices made in these portions are a bit questionable for the terrific portions that pop up later. The initial hour is all predictable, though engaging and fun, it stays just afloat but where it surprises you is with the smart twist it gives to the seemingly predictable situation and the character.

Ashwath knows his substance, but he acknowledges the commercial story structure he laid his film upon, owing to the extensive sugarcoating exercise he indulges in. His writing gives one great thing, sugarcoats round it, another great thing and another layer of sugar, to a superb point where all this sweetness just flakes off. It takes an immense courage to explore such a potentially tragic moment in a seemingly riotous entertainer.

Set-ups and payoffs are the rewards for a well written narrative and screenplay and this is exactly where the film gets it all right. From a cigarette piece to a small dialogue amidst a fight, to even a small dozing off moment, every little detail left off in the initial portions finds its place in the beautifully written latter half. Right from the tweak it gives the typical Principal character to the bigger character arc its protagonist undergoes, Ashwath loads this narrative with so much of smartness, yet never gets preachy in all his gloriously entertaining portions. The character arc for the protagonist never changes overnight, and he doesn't realise his flaws right at the moment.

Dragon has its flaws too. The consequences of the mistakes aren't expanded on, given the buildup it gives to such portions. We are not shown the emotions of its two primary characters(i.e) the parents and the love interest, face when they realise the protagonist's flaws. The film slightly rushes through these pivotal moments and gives it relatively lesser time, though these moments do register well.

Just like his debut, Ashwath chooses the second chance and guilt tropes in this story, but the fantasy element he used in that film is neatly merged and simplified into the narrative. The writing for a significant part is not on your face. The idea behind certain characters is a masterstroke; take for instance the other Dragon and the Myskkin character. The narrative deconstructs the surface level glamour of the 'bad-boy doing bad things' one after another to a point where it all gets collapsed and left with the striking reality.

Dragon, amidst its shortcomings, makes for one immensely entertaining and engaging film with a terrific Pradeep, who gets the agitated and animated meter with great flair, well written characters and performances around him. Within the glossy commercial format, Ashwath painfully shatters the fluff out of them and conveys a terrific concept with superb smartness.  Dragon's take  on morality through its mainstream enjoyable screenplay scores all the brownie points.

An Ashwath Marimuthu araajagam (deconstructed) indeed.