B Tech movie review: Nothing extraordinary

Cast: Aparna Balamurali, Niranjana Anoop, Asif Ali, Deepak Parambol, Sreenath Bhasi, Saiju Kurup, Arjun Ashokan, Alencier, Anoop Menon
Director: Mridul Nair

The story is set in an engineering campus in Bengaluru, every youngster’s dream. Like every campus story, there are gang wars, ragging, trips and romance. The protagonists — Anand (Asif), Jojo (Sreenath), Nizar (Deepak), Arjun Ashokan (Azad) and Saiju Kurup (Prasanth) — live in a rented space (though they don’t pay for it) belonging to Saithali (Alencier), who runs a restaurant near the campus. Saithali treats them like his children. All of them, except Azad, a level-headed first year student, have been studying there for the past eight years.

The first half gives us an idea about the characters. It has those typical campus sequences and references to pubs, drugs and liquor, which filmmakers have been using for a long time to establish Bengaluru. There is nothing surprising there. They could have used some other novel elements to denote Bengaluru.

The love story of Anand and Priya (Aparna) is intertwined in the main plot. A highlight of the movie is the second half where they discuss a burning issue. There occurs an incident and it breaks the monotony. The perspectives of the gang members change. 

Director Mridul is not trying to glorify his characters, which is a good attempt. He sticks to the fact that all humans are flawed. He shows their change in attitude and at the same time acknowledges their flaws through the dialogues of the advocate played by Anoop Menon. There are some emotional sequences that would bring tears. But there is a lack of clarity towards the climax. The movie rushes to conclude. The audience doesn’t get convinced the way they get those footages to solve the dilemma.

Asif has done a decent job as the angry young man. We have seen him in such portrayals before. Arjun with his subtle moves has given a memorable performance. He would linger in our minds. The background score, mostly big bangs, blends with the story. B Tech conveys a message. But whether they needed an engineering campus to communicate this thought remains to be a question.