Bagheera Movie Review

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Director Adhik Ravichandran is creating a notorious reputation for himself as an adult comedy film maker in Kollywood. His latest outing Bagheera also banks heavily on adult humor. The film is about a lunatic self-appointed savior of men who goes about killing women who are promiscuous. Actor Prabhu Deva who was last seen in the action thriller Poikkal Kudhirai is back on screens with his psychological romantic thriller Bagheera. Actress Amyra Dastur has portrayed the female lead role. So, how has the psychological romantic thriller Bagheera come out? Is it solid enough to revive actor Prabhu Deva’s bankable lead hero image, and give a break to actress Amyra Dastur in Tamil cinema? To know that let us get into the movie review. 

The film opens to Prabhu (Prabhu Deva) journeying with his newly wedded wife to Sri Lanka to celebrate their honeymoon where she is murdered as expected. A chain of murders of women take place with the same modus operandi. Before they are murdered, every victim is sent a teddy bear doll that kills them with a shot of chemical drug. The serial killer operates under the name Bagheera. Inspector Sai Kumar (Sai Kumar) takes charge of the case, and begins his investigation. Meanwhile, Ramya (Amyra Dastur), a student of psychology, starts to do a case study on Bagheera. It is known Prabhu is Bagheera, who is an inane psychopath in whose mental condition even a breakup from a woman is equated to cheating. He runs a site for boys or men who cannot handle rejection to come and share the details of their ex. So that he can go and hack them to death.  

There has to be a flashback, right? As to why Bagheera is Bagheera? We have one. We are taken to Prabhu’s childhood which gives us a preposterous reading into his character. Prabhu, as a child is close to Murali whose parents adopt him after the demise of his mother. This brings him even closer to Murali. Prabhu loses his eyesight in a bizarre way, only to be given his sight back by Murali’s cancer patient mother. Meanwhile, Murali commits suicide after finding out that his wife cheated on him. This incenses Prabhu who goes to kill her, but she manages to flee with her boyfriend. Prabhu is put in a mental asylum. Cut to the present, Bagheera goes after Ramya as a man uploads her details to the site. Will Ramya escape death, what will happen to Bagheera, and will his mental illness be cured, is what makes the rest of the story. 

Director Adhik Ravichandran continues his journey as an adult comedy film maker. With Bagheera he goes a rung further down Dante’s hell. Bagheera would make for a master class in film schools on how not to make a movie. There is absolutely no such thing as craft in the film. It appears as if the storyteller contemplated what to shoot for the day in the morning while on his commute to the sets, and shot them. Otherwise, it is unfathomable to make sense, if at all the story of Bagheera was scripted, how could have it gotten the approval to go into production? Even if the director had done a minimum work of collecting a bunch of scenes from movies with women killing psychopaths, at least that would have amounted for a decent plot. 

The only upgrade to the psychopath in Bagheera is that he uses technology to get to his targets. Although, one could argue that this element is lifted from Anniyan. What is really funny about Bagheera is after all the possible degradation that it does to women, director Adhik Ravichandran holds on to the sign board that the film classifies women as good and bad, and takes on only the bad ones. Really mate? If the plot is a colossal disaster even the humor does not offer any temporary redemption. In the entire film hardly a couple of jokes induce chuckle. Rest, just infuriates. Bagheera might have clicked if it had been released three or four decades back. But at a period where Tamil cinema audiences are keen to subscribe their time to refreshing content, it would only provide for troll material. 

Actor Prabhu Deva has indisputably enjoyed playing his part in the film. He effortlessly handles the eccentricity in his character. He does hold our attention for the most part. Actress Amyra Dastur’s role is one of the most terribly written characters in a while. The actress seems clueless on screen. Actor Srikanth’s character is unintentionally funny. His performance makes it even funnier. Actor Sai Kumar makes his presence felt even in a next to nothing role. Veteran actor Nassar is effective as usual. Actresses Gayathrie, Remya Nambeesan, Janani, Sanchita Shetty, Sakshi Agarwal, and Pragathi live up to the purpose of why they were brought on board. Actor Manikandan does justice to his part. Actor Akilan S Pushparaj is functional. Actress Yuvarani is adequate. Actor Vetri is operational. Actors Shanmugarajan, G M Kumar, Kalairani, Mohan Vaidya, Shivashankar, Yashika Aannand, Madhan Pandi, Pasanga Sivakumar, TSR, G P Muthu, Vetrivel Raja, Gokul, Baba Bhaskar, and Raj Kapoor have all chipped in and have played their part well.  

On the technical front, music director S Ganesan’s songs are not inspiring. But his background score aids in fashioning the kooky pulse of the flick. Cinematographers Selva Kumar S K, and Abinandhan Ramanujam have done an average job covering the drama. There is great calamity in their frames. Editor Ruben has brought forth his prowess in his trade, and has tried his maximum to weed out the flaws in the work of his colleagues. Without him the film would have lost its coherence. 

On the whole, even the striking performance of actor Prabhu Deva in a quirky role cannot salvage Bagheera from the lethargic job of Adhik Ravichandran.