B. TECH MOVIE REVIEW

B. Tech Story: A bunch of engineering students in Bengaluru struggle to get through the course due to their lackadaisical attitudes and frequent skirmishes within the college. An incident outside the campus though shakes them to reality and they are forced to confront it through a trial by fire.

B. Tech Review: Mridul Nair's debut directorial BTech is backed by ingredients that has more often than not spelled success in the box office recently - a youth-centric plot about engineering students, Asif Ali-Aparna Balamurali combo and a Bengaluru setting to top it off. However, Mridul ably uses these elements to cleverly deceive the viewer of what he serves through the film.

The movie is filled to the brim with actors such as Asif Ali, Aparna Balamurali, Sreenath Bhasi, Niranjana Anoop, Deepak Parambol, Arjun Ashokan, Saiju Kurup and Anoop Menon to name a few. 


The film starts off by introducing engineering students of a Bengaluru college. Some of them including Anand (Asif), Nizar (Deepak Parumbol) and Jojo (Sreenath Bhasi) have been studying the course for the past eight years. Their skirmishes with the rival gangs, camaraderie, lackadaisical attitude to their course as well as their lives and their personal problems are all shown in the first half.

Asif plays a stubborn senior who is the gang's leader. Harishree Ashokan's son Arjun, who plays Azad, gets a meaty role as a level-headed first year student who join the indolent gang of seniors. 

The plot of the first half is haphazard as there is too much happening. The script packs in most of what is expected of a film about BTech students, along with Bengaluru's party scene. One minute the story shows the characters fighting with their rivals, the next they get away to North Kerala to get a taste of simple life without the opulence of Bengaluru life, soon they are back in Bengaluru and then all of a sudden the plot turns to the religious bias among the cops in the city.

However, the second half reveal the true reasons for the lengthy setup, which seemed pointless at first. An incident involving Azad shakes the city to its core and quickly highlights the religious bias and judgments among the authorities. The latter half is also where the crisp edits of Mahesh Narayan and Abhilash Balachandran make it brilliantly engaging. 

The characters played by Asif, Aparna and Niranjana get a wallop of energy and they are equally up to the task. A scene where Asif truly emerges as the leader of his entire college can give you goosebumps. Anoop Menon delivers in his role as an advocate who questions the cops for their perceived notions and also a mentor to the engineering students to mine the skills their education offers. 


Rahul Raj's music infuses freshness to the proceedings of the film, which is 2 hour and 26 minutes long. Some of the comedy in the script though feel forced and also the romance angle between Asif and Aparna's characters only slacken the first half, which could have easily been trimmed further and make the movie engaging from start to finish rather than the last hour.

The movie does touch upon some relevant topics and makes for a good one-time watch, thanks in big part to the second half and good songs.