Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/article/rangoon-tamil-movie-review
Film is a kind of fiction, but first-time director Rajkumar Periasamy — a former associate of A. R. Murugadoss, who is the producer here — fills Rangoon with the factual density of non-fiction. He has done his research, and it’s all up there on screen. The film begins with the arrest of Venkatesan (Gautham Karthik) in 2004, and he narrates a story that takes us back to Burma, 1988. He was born there. His father moved to Chennai. Soon, his mother took Venkatesan and his sister and joined her husband. When they reach the city, on-screen text tells us its name: not Chennai, but Madras. And the place they settle down in? It’s the Burmese Tamils Residential Quarters.
No member of the audience is going to bat an eyelid if Venkatesan did not have roots in Burma or if the family settled down in, say, Saidapet — but this specificity gives the story a unique character. The fact that someone hails from Madhavaram KKR Town or that a government hospital is located in Ponneri. The fact that the gold traders in Sowcarpet belong to an Association. The fact that money (in rupees) is given to the owner of a small shop here and picked up as dollars in Singapore. The fact that gold biscuits are smuggled in gas cylinders and milk sweets. The fact that Venkatesan is stopped by cops on the Rangoon-Mandalay highway. It’s like reading an account in the New Yorker.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2017 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
MANK
June 9, 2017
Samuthirakani is taking some real beating from you these days 😀
And from your dissatisfaction with the performances, it’s clear that Gautam karthik is yet to learn acting
On a positive note, I am glad that more and more mainstream Tamil directors are paying attention to detailing – even if they are influenced by Hollywood – and it’s not just a concern of a Mani rathnam or a GVM anymore
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Rajeshwar
June 10, 2017
Is it inspired from bullet to the head
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sanjana
June 10, 2017
Two films with the same name!
Confusing.
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jaga_jaga
June 10, 2017
Hey a brilliant review! Can’t agree with you anymore. Solid plot, and hazy performances. That sums up the movie. The so called twists were not contrived at all, and the suspense was also revealed organically.
One quick question though – I don’t understand this part of the plot. If his arrest happens in 2004, he is just 16 then. Does the movie ever return to the present? If I recollect Gautam Karthik when he was arrested, says that his age was 23 and he was born in 1989?? I am lost here! Can you please explain here?
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Nanban
August 24, 2017
@jaga_jaga
He was not born in 1989.. He n his family moved to Madras in 1989 when he was 8years old..
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