Rifle Club review: A Kerala Western starring Anurag Kashyap that fires on all cylinders

Every filmmaker dreams of creating an audacious movie that takes viewers to dizzying heights, but very rarely do they achieve that target. However, Ashiq Abu’s Western-style Rifle Club — seamlessly transplanted into the Kerala milieu and filled with stylish gunslingers engaged in climactic gunfights — strikes a perfect chord. It’s bloody, violent, and glorifies the spilling of guts and gunfire with such blazing intensity that you can’t help but be wholly invested.

Every player in this wonderfully cast ensemble actioner brings heft and might to the film. Whether it’s Anurag Kashyap as the morally bankrupt, wildly wacky gangster Dayanand Bare, who storms into a gun-owning hunting clan in Wayanad to avenge the death of his rogue son, or Vijayaraghavan as the stoic, wheelchair-bound patriarch who commands respect and rallies his family when outliers threaten their existence, the performances are stellar.

Be warned: this movie is unapologetic about its love for arms. If you are against the lax gun policies in the West or feel deeply disturbed by the gun violence in America, Rifle Club may trigger you. But if you are in the mood for a film that rides high on collective swagger, style, and swashbuckling energy, this one will hit all the sweet spots.

It’s the performances that elevate this pulpy film, which could have easily been reduced to men slinging their egos and guns at one another while indulging in showmanship and bravado. Every character in this film leaves an impression. Whether it’s the heavy-set Dileesh Pothan breaking down the joys and thrills of hunting to a doe-eyed film actor (an efficient Vineeth Kumar) hoping to method act as a hunter, or Vani Viswanath telling a macho intruder to speak to her instead of looking for a male family member to have a “real conversation,” each moment packs a punch.

While guns are usually associated with men, the women belonging to the privileged, legacy-driven Rifle Club are no less lethal. Darshana Rajendran and Unnimaya Prasad, whose characters bristle with petty jealousies, bury the hatchet and take on their common enemy in a scene that is a sight to behold. They are not merely props in this film. If Surabhi Lakshmi is all sass, there’s the matriarch who stays behind to fight because she’s still the best shooter in the family. The best part about this film is that their participation doesn’t come across as woke for the sake of it, they are there for a good reason.

While the women are remarkable, the men aren’t shabby either.

Rapper Hanumankind makes his acting debut with aplomb, and Anurag Kashyap delivers an eccentric and wickedly compelling antagonist.

Scenes where Kashyap’s character strips down to flashy boxers as he embarks on a bloody mission to obliterate his son’s killers are particularly potent. His hideous deeds are performed with such conviction that you find yourself almost rooting for him. Rapper Hanumankind, playing his spoiled and privileged son, is a revelation. One chilling scene where Kashyap cajoles and commands his son to hold on to his guns before going on a killing spree without him is all shades of disturbing and dysfunctional.

Perhaps that’s the beauty of Ashiq Abu’s films. His characters are unapologetically warped, reveling in their dark and gray morality. Dysfunctionality is their norm, and watching such grey characters in action and even celebrating their vile deeds becomes a fascinating experience.

This film is also big on bullets and beats. Rex Vijayan’s music, along with the background score by Yakzan Gary Periera and Neha Nair, dials up the tempo of this crazy adventure. Ultimately, Rifle Club is a wild ride populated by nut jobs committing even nuttier deeds. But it’s this unabashed madness and sheer audacity that make the film so exhilarating.

It’s chaotic, zany, unapologetic, and impossible to look away from—a cinematic adrenaline rush that lingers long after the credits roll. Rifle Club is a loaded action spectacle.