'Bagheera' review: Srii Murali Roars Loud And Proud In An Even-Tempered Superhero Flick

Director: Dr Suri
Writers: Dr Suri and Prashanth Neel
Cast: Srii Murali, Rukmini Vasanth, Prakash Raj, Garuda Ram, Rangayana Raghu, Achyuth Kumar
Language: Kannada

Vigilantism is the cinematic result of emotion being stirred in an indifferent protagonist. A socially insouciant lead character, often male, arrives at a crossroads, realizes his hidden potential and capacity for empathy and decides to work for the greater good of society. Sometimes, they are naturally equipped with said potential and elevated to a superhero status without any initiation. At other times, they are galvanized into action by a personal event (typically, a tragedy) that leaves them with no choice but to assume a new identity, to don a mask of justice.

In Dr Suri's Bagheera, though, both these tropes find ample space. The movie follows IPS officer Vedanth Prabhakar (Srii Murali) whose stoic presence, complemented by his sculpted physique, his neat khaki getup and his ever-so-gentle smile, speaks volumes about his righteousness and his idealism. As the son of a cop (Achyuth Kumar), Vedanth believes that cops are the superheroes his late mother (Sudha Rani) introduced him to many years ago, and that his powers have been entrusted to him for the sake of the people. His very first posting drops him into the belly of drama that is Mangaluru, where cops have turned a blind eye to human trafficking, crimes against women and everyday hooliganism.

A still from Bagheera.

Vedanth Prabhakar, however, likes to swim against the tide and even manages to clean things up, only to be pulled down by his seniors for ruffling too many feathers. Enter Bagheera, his disillusioned alter-ego, who wears black spandex and leaps across the town in the dark to kill, avenge and confuse.

One of Bagheera's strongest suits is how it dispenses all this information, and a bit more, with little fuss and a lot of efficiency. The screenplay, by Dr Suri (with Prashanth Neel credited with the story) is taut, never spoon-feeding its world to the audience, but simply unfolding at its own brisk pace. Pranav Sri Prasad's slick editing energizes the film, while also providing distraction for the narrative cliches. It helps that Srii Murali clearly understands the pitch of the film as he saunters, never struggles, through the archetypal cop character that has been rendered a few too many times already on the big screen.

The romance portion of the film, involving Vedanth and Dr Sneha (the very charming Rukmini Vasanth), contains the same cliches. That a tough cookie of a policeman would fall for an elegant, yet equally tenacious, woman has been witnessed time and again in Indian cinema but Bagheera benefits from a deft hand. Vedanth is introduced to Sneha when she enables a bunch of school girls to retaliate against eve-teasing louts. He’s impressed and falls for her.

A screenplay would typically strengthen its meet-cute with a few more scenes but Dr Suri finds a more engaging way of proceeding. He sets a montage to a romantic track, but also tenderly reveals that both characters here are their own people. Ajaneesh B Loknath's music, which is predominantly an uptempo techno beat, underscores these moments with suitable subtlety.

Cinematographer AJ Shetty's game of light and shadow is evocative of the Batman realm. Yet, there is a touch of originality in what he does and his superb dexterity elevates the action sequences. It might not be unfair to claim that Bagheera will set a new benchmark as far as action choreography in Kannada films is concerned, and action director Chethan D’Souza deserves kudos for his work.

A still from Bagheera.

Veteran Prakash Raj, too, enters the fray with great ease and the writing shines once again in the way it lets him steer the plot in a new, intriguing direction. The 59-year-old actor has played myriad cops over the years, and here he finds his groove as the neither-friend-nor-foe player with his own set of motives, out to apprehend Bagheera. Rangayana Raghu, reliable as ever, effectively essays the part of Vedanth’s aide.

This no-fuss approach of the writing, however, rids the film of emotional depth. Although Bagheera isn't technically a superhero flick, it owns the personality and timbre of one which means that it rides almost entirely on those goosebumps-inducing emotional peaks. Vedanth's disenchantment with his profession feels flimsy and a tad unconvincing given the stakes he is up against. The film doesn't build a strong enough case to make the viewer want the beast within to be unleashed.

As a result, his transition from an ordinary Joe to the messiah of the masses feels diluted because there's no substantial emotional core to draw from. A film like Vikramaditya Motwane's Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018) works with a similar template but there, the protagonist slips into his superhero avatar after his friend dies fighting corruption, setting out to not only exact revenge but also combat evil the way his friend wanted to. As much as Bagheera wants us to root for its protagonist, there simply isn't much to latch on to in terms of the sentiment that a masala film is expected to offer. The film also skims over why Vedanth chooses Bagheera specifically as his spirit animal.

The story also suffers from the lack of a formidable antagonist. Garuda Ram, as Rana, is diabolical, but his form of villainy has a seen-before banality about it, especially when he comes across as a remorseless mass-murderer who is devoid of the wisdom or the woeful poignancy that we seek from a supervillain. Bagheera is the latest in the list of films that use sexual crimes against women to instigate agony in the audience. There is a crudeness to the one-liners, the violence and the graphic portrayals of pain (one scene has a victim self-immolating), despite attempts to handle these scenes with care.

Bagheera wades through its shortcomings only because of how committed it is towards dishing out pure entertainment. The film is likely to be a game-changer for Kannada cinema with its technical proficiency, including the camera work, production design and overall visual grammar, and its no-compromise approach. Could the story have afforded a few more risks and some inventiveness? Yes, but there's enough and more to savour over the 158-minute runtime, and keeping the current trend in mind, perhaps we’ll get to see more of the masked vigilante in the near future. Till then, Bagheera is here to roar loud and proud.