This masked crusader ‘roars’ Cast: Sriimurali, Rukmani Vasanth, Prakash Raj, Rangayana Raghu, Achyut Kumar, Ramachandra Raju Rating: 3.5* ...
This masked crusader ‘roars’
Cast: Sriimurali, Rukmani Vasanth, Prakash Raj, Rangayana Raghu, Achyut Kumar, Ramachandra Raju
Rating: 3.5*
Director Dr. Suri makes a fully commercial superhero film with ‘Roaring Star’ Sriimurali, displaying an action-packed, powerful performance. The story is by Prashanth Neel (KGF, Salaar) and he narrates the film through 8 chapters. The story and direction are fast-paced and in keeping with the superhero template. This is possibly the beginning of the superhero concept in Kannada movies. It also has shades of Amitabh Bachchan’s Shahenshah where he plays a bribe-taking cop by the day and a masked vigilante by night with themask resembling Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish. However, once the story picks up after a slow chapter 1 there is nothing to stop it after that.
The film starts in the year 2001, when a young Vedant inspired by superhero books, dresses up as Superman and jumps off a building to test his ‘superpowers’ only to break his leg. His mother (Sudharani) who reads out these superhero comics tells him that all heroes do not wear capes but sometimes appear from nowhere to help the needy. Pointing to her cop husband and his father Prabhakar (played by Achyut Kumar) who is a cop, she says that even the police are superheroes and so is his father. In the present, Vedant Prabhakar (Sriimurali) becomes a gold medallist police officer with a stickler for rules and aspires to eradicate evil from society. But when actual reality hits him hard at the police station having his hands tied, he dons a mask and becomes a vigilante at night- Bagheera.
Sriimurali actually roars in the film. His agility and performance are both in brilliant display. Rukmini Vasanth as Vedant’s girlfriend Dr Sneha is relegated to a supporting role. She shines though in a couple of scenes. Rangayana Raghu as senior constable Narayana plays the emotional anchor of Vedant. Prakash Raj as CBI head Guru is his usual self. Ramachandra Raju (Garuda in KGF) plays the main villain Rana who is extremely powerful and is involved in organ trading. He matches Sriimurali blow-for-blow. He looks absolutely menacing. As Prabhakar, father of Vedant, Achyut Kumar is strictly okay.
The character Bagheera is extremely powerful, jumps like a ninja, is agile like a cat, and never misses his targets with his bullets (haha). But the baddies' bullets always miss him and is invincible. He rides a custom-built superbike and has unique (again) custom-built weapons.
Chapter 2 is the best of the lot where Vedant transforms himself from a down-and-out cop to the masked crusader Bagheera. It is from this chapter that the pace of the film picks up.
Bagheera is a roller coaster, action-packed entertainer with excellent VFX and superb action.
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