Jaguar (Kannada)
Director: A. Mahadev
Cast: Nikhil Kumar, Deepti Sati, Jagapati Babu, Sampath Raj, Adithya Menon, Vidyullekha Raman, Sadhu Kokila, Ramya Krishnan
It was clear from the trailer of Jaguar that Nikhil Kumar’s debut in the Kannada film industry would at least have a glossy and flamboyant countenance, if not anything else. Moreover, since it is the latest in the season of debuts, it had to be markedly different from either Sachin’s (also a JD(S) leader’s son) Happy Birthday or Siddharth Mahesh’s Sipaayi .
Jaguar surely looks slick, believes in constructing a spectacle in every frame and even has a mask-wearing, bike-riding, larger-than-life-vigilante figure at its centre. In short, the film-maker has tried his best to add all the gimmicks he could find to put Nikhil in a league of his own, likening him rather obviously to a Batman-like character.
The questions, however, were whether there would be a strong, if not different, script to hold up this edifice and if there would be a good actor behind that mask. Unfortunately, Jaguar tells you a pretty generic story of revenge, and even struggles to narrate it coherently. And Nikhil is a rather mediocre performer and is a better dancer than an actor.
As the film opens, we see Jaguar (Nikhil), clad in a black costume and mask, kill a former judge and telecast the murder live on a news channel. Before the police can arrive, Jaguar is gone. But shortly after, we are introduced to the man behind the mask —S.S. Krishna (Nikhil again), a student at a medical college. Over the course of the film, we see Krishna transform into Jaguar frequently and commit a few more murders. As a set-up, this portion of the plot works rather well for it creates enough curiosity and trudges the plot further.
But in the second half, when Krishna’s back story is revealed, one realises that it is yet again, a generic tale of revenge full of familiar tropes such as guarding one’s family honour and the need for justice. Since Jaguar’s vigilantism is out for everyone to see, especially since it is telecast live on television, one hoped that the reasons behind it all were also of some significance. Instead, what we have is one man’s tale of personal vendetta stretched over two-and-a-half hours.
The film-maker ensures there is a love story too is added to the mix by introducing Priya (Deepti Sati), a classmate of Krishna’s. But this too is a run-of-the-mill story with Priya being the ‘cute’ girl that likes to play with dogs and Krishna being her maverick but macho saviour.
The action sequences are plenty and are predictably choreographed. Revving bikes, sports cars and swords are Jaguar’s tools. Then, there are enough songs too — most of which are shot on snow-capped mountains or wide blue seas. Not to forget the rather randomly inserted item number featuring Tamannah. And to complete the elements necessary in a “mass” film, there is also a comic portion with Sadhu Kokila. The film-maker’s idea of comedy is to spank a woman and make ‘jokes’ about sleeping with her.
The flipside of so many elements in a film is that the narrative has to take frequent breaks to accommodate them. It seems like the crew struggled to put everything together eventually, for the film is edited quite poorly.
The film-maker seems to have given Nikhil lengthy dialogues, vigorous dance moves and elaborate action sequences but when it comes to emoting for the screen, the actor is not quite there yet. Deepti’s role has literally no depth and so there is barely any scope for any acting. Sampath Raj and Adithya Menon play the bad guys in the film and are evenly melodramatic in the film. Ramya Krishnan’s role seems to be added almost as an afterthought. She appears during a flashback in the second half and for a scene in the climax. However, she brings in some swag nevertheless.
As a launch-pad, Nikhil’s Jaguar is glossy but fails to disguise its ordinariness.
