Jaguar Review

There is a scene where, after a final year MBBS student narrates a short flashback involving Vishwa Ramachandrayya (Rao Ramesh as an altruistic, philanthropic doctor), the hero takes a deep yawn.  The yawn is important.  That's very much the audience's condition after the flashback.  The story is thanklessly predictable from that point, if it wasn't before that.  Only that the hero's character is used to mislead the audience into thinking that the Jaguar is actually a selfish maniac ('In order to go a step further, I am ready to worship ten or oppress a hundred').  Or that's what the writer's delusion was. 
 
Sampath Raj (of 'Mirchi' and 'Srimanthudu' fame) is a scheming media baron who wouldn't stop at anything to rule the roost.  A mask-wearing youth (Nikhil Kumar) hacks his TV channel and shoots himself in action, telecasting LIVE the murder of a judge.  Having done his Hollywoodish bit, a few days later, he turns into a South Indian screen hero on the campus of a medical college.  All hackneyed things follow one after one: a hero-oriented song, love, romance, spurning, kiss, action, hostel comedy (around booze and a pet), making a fool out of a senior, and, of course, the hitherto good-for-nothing hero saving a life in a jiffy. 
 
Meanwhile, rivalry between an idealistic medico and the son of the college's chairman (played by Adithya Menon) drags on and on. 
 
After establishing the hero as a hi-tec killer, the scene shifting to a college campus (the Mysore Infosys campus is fabulously captured by Manoj Paramahamsa's lens) doesn't help in the absence of a good comedy/rom-com track.  It's here that the screenplay (by Mahadev) should have been engaging.  The element of student rivalry becomes an irritant after a while.  The romantic track involving Nikhil and Deepthi Sathi is half-hearted at best. 
 
The track between Jagapathi Babu (as an upright CBI officer) and Sampath is largely inconsequential and one wonders what is the point in the former mocking at 24/7 news channels' sensationalism and crass journalism more than once. 
 
Psychologically, the audience would find it unsettling to find that it's all about personal revenge (complete with a widowed mother) especially after the setting presents a larger-than-life Jaguar, a corrupted media baron who is manic, a do-gooder (read Rao Ramesh) who revels in idealism, a medico whose conscience is pricked when he realizes he is part of a system that exploits poor patients, a professor-doctor who can't be in this bloody set-up any more...

Nikhil makes a confident debut.  In a film allegedly made on a budget of Rs. 75 cr, he sadly has to swallow more than what he can chew, though.  His body and certain skills give him the confidence.  His comic timing and others need improvement.  Deepthi Sathi, who looks otherwise beautiful off-screen, is wasted.  Rao Ramesh is good, Adithya Menon is better, Sampath is at his usual best.  Ramya Krishna is boring, Brahmanandam is even more boring.  Jagapathi Babu convinces with ease.

Manoj's cinematography, art direction and other factors make 'Jaguar' a visually rich affair.  Thaman's music is good (especially 'Get Set Go Ready').

Verdict: Punctuated with stylized action, the film is largely formulaic. Story sequence is fairly good, though.  Mediocre humor, predictability, lukewarm romance do the film in.  Performances are good.

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