Written by Shahi Kabir (who was once a police officer himself; hence the immaculate detailing that you see here), Ronth can be classified as an intriguing character study featuring two drastically different cop characters – SI Yohannan (Dileesh Pothan) and CPO Dinnath (Roshan Mathew). Both these characters almost instantly make a different pairing, given how both these characters have contrasting personalities. Dinnath is more raw and naive, while still not completely familiar with the workings of the police department. Yohannan on the other hand, is a veteran, fully aware of how the department works while having the framework of a normal aging cop (as opposed to the slim framework on his inexperienced counterpart) that we have been witness to at some point. And the same is reflected in their contrasting ways of handling a situation too.

In a scene, you see Dinnath getting into a fisted brawl during a routine police inquiry, only to be reminded by Yohannan on how the concerned party could impose a charge, which would then lead to both characters losing their jobs. In another scene, you see Yohannan extracting money from a priest (who was paid for the damages to his car, again initiated by Yohannan), who figures that the priest had consumed wine. Yohannan doesn’t treat the money as a form of a bribe, retorting to a shocked Dinnath on how they could use the money for the jeep repairs, given how tough it is to extract money from the department. And immediately, you tend to gravitate towards the younger cop who has still not been engulfed by the winds of corruption.

The plight of the police officers can be determined through a bunch of events along with the setting. The setting is that of Christmas time, the time of the year that is essentially labelled as the ‘holiday period’. And while you do expect fun and frolic on the streets, the tone remains sombre, given how the events unfold through the gaze of the two cop characters, who have been assigned duties during the holiday period. To make matters worse, each of the two characters are marred by personal issues in their private lives that are deliberately kept in the background – Dinnath’s kid is unwell and suffering from high-fever while Yohannan’s wife is a psychiatric patient who doubts his whereabouts. But while the camera follows these characters, their personal lives are only shown in the background!

The drama here can also be perceived to be a buddy-cop thriller in many ways. In an alternate setting, this could have been the tale of two brothers as seen in the cop-thriller The Accountant 2 (2025). If this was a Youtube video on cricket, the highlights package would include Dhoni and Kohli running-between-the-wickets. But because this is a grounded cop thriller, you see the complimenting styles of Dinnath and Yohannan coming in play. In a scene, you see Yohannan opting to drive his ‘partner’ and his ailing child to a hospital, despite earlier encounters of friction between the two. Probably, Yohannan did see a younger version of himself in Dinnath who is still naive and needs that backing. In another scene, you also see Dinnath and Yohannan bonding over a suspicion of arrest, wherein the latter deliberately allows the former to intrude a couple. The scene remains fleeting but immensely wholesome.

In another scene, you see Yohannan and Dinnath joining forces to rescue a child from her psychiatric father, each with a different interest in mind – Dinnath has a soft corner for patients  psychiatric patients given a personal loss, while the same sentiments engulf Yohannan towards the young child, again due to a personal loss. This sequence in many ways made me believe that both Yohannan and Dinnath are the same character at different intervals of life. Dinnath in a few years would start acting like Yohannan, and guiding another younger Dinnath about the workings of the department.

If you are familiar with the storytelling techniques of Shahi Kabir, then you can guess the direction of the drama which soon switches towards a larger tragedy. If Nayattu (2021) or Ela Veezha Poonchira (2022) are ever to go by it, then you must be prepared for the politics that engulfs the narrative here, particularly with regards to the discrepancies of the police department that is blinded and mum to collateral damage in the red-tape era. And using this as a base, the drama transforms into a Shakespearean tragedy that is deeply dark, disturbing and haunting. You feel a sense of empathy for the characters given the time that you have spent with them. Hence when an unforseen tragedy transpires, it does leave you numb to the core, a sentiment that is hard to shake off and something that continues to linger on long after the film has ended. In that regard, the screenplay is an absolute winner that is disturbing and gut-wrenching in so many ways!