Rest assured, Shahi Kabir’s contributions to Kerala’s cinematic and cultural understanding of its police system are unprecedented in their responsible artistry. Though unmistakably conflicted and often flawed, the ex-police officer’s track record—as a writer on “Joseph” (2018) and “Nayattu” (2021), and as assistant director on “Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum” (2017)—reveals a man with both an informed gaze and an uninhibited stance on institutional dysfunction. His evolution as an artist is also a testament to his openness to learn, revise, and rethink from within. This isn’t said to romanticize the man, but to better grasp the writing and directorial mechanics of “Ronth,” his sophomore directorial effort following 2022’s “Ela Veezha Poonchira.”
The single-ingredient effectiveness of most contemporary Malayalam cinema—across genres—is madness, honestly. The way the industry has positioned itself at the forefront of compelling regional storytelling by fusing a naturally grounded milieu with sharply narrative-driven filmmaking is nothing short of remarkable. Still, no matter how textured or brilliantly infused the hero of your movie—i.e., the story—is, the film is always at risk of rupture if it slows down or feels laborious. This is doubly true in the case of police procedurals, already burdened by the weight of events, action, and exposition. Which is why “Ronth,” despite its optics and deeply responsible framing, walks a precarious tightrope. The details are many. But each is earned and cared for in the context of the setting.
What Kabir does with those details, however, is something close to seamless. Set over the course of a single night, with two nightwatchmen patrolling their way through the cracks of both their jurisdiction and their own wounded masculinities, the film’s politics quietly drifts into poetic territory. Its flavour is that of a mid-year social thriller, despite the Christmastime setting. The film lays bare the façade of justice and the decaying heart of institutional rot—but this is done not through overt crises, but a stretch of disturbing ‘normalcy’ involving suicides, elopements, unresolved trauma, and everyday abuse. That all of this transpires in a single night lends the film a haunted sense of inevitability—like surveillance and decay wrapped in a coffin-lid stillness, a night that no other hour of the day could contain.
Sure, you begin to register the emerging conflicts and the way the film deliberately stages its daytime scenes as muted and sterile. But even when it leans into contrivance, the film gets beautifully zoned out by its central two-hander. Roshan Mathews as Dinanath becomes a stirring, wounded counter to the agile numbness of Dileesh Pothan’s Yohannan. The exhaustion that creeps into their bodies as the night unfolds is by turns funny, textured, warm, and deeply unsettling. The aroma the film is after emerges squarely from the perspective of its performers.
Here is our attempt to explain “Ronth,” which translates to “Patrol” in English, to you. Its plot is such a thicket that only a fraction can be assimilated in summary. But perhaps this nudge is enough for you to walk into this vital film for yourself.
Ronth (Patrol, 2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
In rural Idukki, a young man named Dinanath drives a girl—his daughter—home and proceeds towards his duty at the Dharmashala police station, where he is posted as a rookie CPO. He is scheduled for night patrol duty alongside Yohannan, a middle-aged Grade Sub-Inspector with a wife affected by PTSD, who is habitually late. On the way, several incidents unfold. First, they stop at a Christmas goods shop, where Yohannan buys a star and hangs it inside the jeep. Dinanath reminds him that it’s against protocol to display religious symbols on police vehicles, to which Yohannan quips that it’s not a cross. They later stop at an area where Dinanath politely tries to reason with a group of loitering boys. Yohannan, however, slaps them and shoos them off, justifying his actions as a preventive measure against eve-teasing.
What happens when they investigate the slum commotion?
As night deepens, they pass a slum where a few rough-looking men on a bike are creating a commotion. On spotting the police jeep, the men flee. Upon inspection, it is revealed that these men had accused one of the slum boys of eloping with a girl from their household—apparently a reputed family. The officers head to the house in Arayckal, where Dinanath ends up arguing with one of the bikers. Yohannan intervenes and diffuses the tension with tact. The couple in the house hides the fact that their daughter has indeed eloped and chooses not to lodge any complaint. Later, they encounter a group of drunk youths who have crashed a pastor’s car. The pastor requests that Yohannan let them off. Yohannan tells the boys to pay the pastor ten thousand rupees for the damage, and after they leave, he pockets the money from the pastor.
Why does Dinanath go into the house alone?
At one point, they stop to rest. But Yohannan soon receives a call from higher-ups summoning him to the station. When they arrive, there’s a new directive: a mentally unstable man from a nearby village must be taken to the hospital. Yohannan, suffering from stomach trouble, sends Officer Sadanandan along with Dinanath. On the way, Dinanath reveals his discomfort with mental patients—his father, himself mentally ill, had died by suicide in a hospital while Dinanath slept beside him.
When they reach the house, Dinanath asks Sadanandan to go in alone. But as time passes, he heads into himself, only to be violently attacked by the man, who’s hiding his child in a barrel. Sadanandan and Dinanath return with injuries, and Yohannan rejoins Dinanath for the remaining patrol. On hearing about the madman, Yohannan becomes personally triggered and takes Dinanath back to the house. Together, the team manages to rescue the baby, subdue the man, and prevent Dinanath from being killed.
Where do they go after midnight?
After midnight, they begin patrolling churches to enforce restrictions on late-night carols. At a church graveyard, Yohannan visits the tombstone of Angel, a baby girl who died on the day she was born in 2010. The duo listens in on radio updates about Kerala’s opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act. They pass a locked vegetable shop where Dinanath senses something amiss. Turns out, it’s just a couple having sex. They then cross a narrow lane where they find a white-coloured Gypsy parked, carrying the eloped girl’s brother and his friend. Not recognising them, they note the vehicle’s details and let them pass. From there, they head towards the Pazhassi Dam, where Dinanath halts briefly after spotting a woman sprinting across the road. Following her, they reach a forest clearing with low oxygen levels.
Who is the girl in the house?
Yohannan explains that this was once the home of Joseph, a chit fund criminal who murdered his wife and son before hanging himself. He suspects the girl has come here to die by suicide and asks Dinanath to investigate. Dinanath reaches the ruins and sees a girl’s reflection—mistaking her for a ghost, he faints. Yohannan revives him, and together they enter the house. The girl is Jincy—the one who had eloped from Arayckal. The boy she ran away with is not the slum kid, but a Muslim model from Manjeri. Naveen, the boy initially accused, is actually her childhood friend.
What happens after Dinanath’s daughter gets critically ill?
Just then, Dinanath receives a call from home: his daughter is critically ill. Yohannan drives him back, and from there, they take his wife, daughter, and mother to the hospital. On the way, a group of rowdy men misinterprets the presence of the women and makes lewd comments. Yohannan reprimands them for their assumptions. Back at the station, they receive a distress call—someone has attempted suicide. By the time they arrive, the woman is already dead, having hung herself while her husband watched helplessly via FaceTime. Her baby cries nearby.
Ronth (Patrol, 2025) Movie Ending Explained:
What happens to Dinanath and Yohannan?
Dinanath is shaken. Yohannan tries to comfort him, saying every policeman eventually moves on to the next dead body. Yohannan also stops by to check on his wife, Salomi. On the way back, a couple of bikers outwit Dinanath. At the same time, they receive a call about two boys being kidnapped from their home by unidentified men. The victims turn out to be Naveen and his friend Arun—abducted by Jincy’s brother, whom they had earlier spared. Jincy’s brother refuses to believe she is in the police station, so Yohannan video-calls and shows her. Meanwhile, Naveen fakes his death and escapes. Jincy’s brother, seeing proof that she’s safe, tells the group to stand down.
Next, the officers respond to a complaint from a woman facing domestic violence. Yohannan flies into a rage and starts beating the husband, only to be stopped by Dinanath. As their jeep runs low on fuel, they pause to rest. Yohannan opens up about Salomi’s condition—how she had tried to kill herself twice, and how their stillborn daughter Angel had further worsened her state. The two men rest briefly before resuming patrol. But their uneasy calm is short-lived. Both are suddenly detained from different locations—framed by DySP Jacob, who has aided Jincy’s brother in falsely implicating them in the murder of Naveen, whose body has been discovered under a bridge.
At the station, Sadanandan tries to convince Dinanath to testify against Yohannan. Dinanath refuses. Meanwhile, Jacob attempts the same with Yohannan, trying to pit him against Dinanath. When Dinanath sees Yohannan writing his statement easily, he feels betrayed and, in a fit of anger, testifies against him too. Consequently, both are named as the fifth and sixth accused in the case. Overwhelmed and panicked, Dinanath tries to escape in front of the media, but is tragically hit by a speeding truck and dies on the spot. The media sensationalizes the incident, while Yohannan is taken away by the police.
