Richie is a crime drama that talks about a journalist who attempts to discover the truth behind a murder through the perspectives of different people. It is a remake of popular Kannada film Ulidavaru Kandanthe, which performed both critically and commercially well. A pretty tough script to pull off for a debutante Gautham Ramachandran.
The film aces very well in the technical departments - music, set designs, and cinematography. Music director Ajaneesh Loknath rocks big time. His BGM accentuates the feel of every scene, be it a heavy duty emotional one or the mass moments. Pandi Kumar’s camera is brilliant and captures the dark rawness of the script beautifully. Athul Vijay’s skillfully trimmed cuts are worth a mention though some may blame him for the slowness in the script, few films deserve a poignant treatment as such. The narrative style is different from the ones we have witnessed all along. The film is more of dialogues driven than action, but few scenes with lengthy dialogues might test your patience.
Most of the cast turn in a good performance. As there are quite a lot of characters in the film, and with a run time of just 110 minutes, each actor gets only very limited screen time and have the challenge to perform within that stipulated time space. For an actor of Nivin Pauly's calibre, it is a cakewalk. Nivin has dubbed in Tamil for the first time, and his Tamil accent is good to an extent, but he could've worked more on the thuthukodi slang in detail. However, his mannerisms will be enjoyed by the audience.
A film that is high on emotional content may not be what people would have expected from Richie especially after seeing the stylishly cut trailer, which looked massy. Shraddha Srinath fits the bill of a journalist, who takes the story forward. Natty is natural and emotes with his share of subtlety. His romantic portions with Lakshmi Priya Chandramouli’s aren't strongly established, which is a concern. Aadukalam Murugadoss has done his role well. Raj Bharath’s performance is apt at places but has a little amount of artificiality, which fails to bring out the desired emotions. Kumaravel has a small but significant character that serves an important purpose for the climax.
On the flip side, the weak engagement added to the experimental narration may not work for a few set of audience. These problems actually make the audience distant from the characters and the emotions on screen. Gautham could have done smart changes to these factors to make it engaging overall.