Film: Tagaru; Cast: Shivarajkumar, Dhananjay, Bhavana, Manvitha Harish, Vasishta Simha, Devanatha, Devaraj; Director: Suri
Rating: 4/5
M any a times, success of a film does not just lie in the direction capabilities or the strength of the story, but rather the casting, which, when given the freedom, takes the best course, lending a new audacity to the director’s imagination. Tagaru manages to fall into the ‘classics’ category, with intense characters, brilliant screenplay, creative cinematography and promising music including the background score playing with the stunts scenes. The film also has enough punch lines by Maasti Manju.
Of course, nobody can take the credit away from director Suri. Tagaru elevates his body of work in crime movies, such as Duniya, Anna Bond, Kaddipudi and even the thriller Kendasampige.
This is a simple and familiar story, but it is told remarkably well with Suri’s new style that is non-linear. He has allowed each character to play out. Shivarajkumar stands tall, playing a cop to perfection. Dhananjay, as the new-age villain, defines a whole new class of evil.
Shiva (Shivarajkumar) is an ACP, who is popularly known as Tagaru Shiva, an encounter specialist who uses intelligence and power to eliminate wrongdoers. His idea of Swacch Bharat is to clean the city of rowdies such as Daali (Dhananjay), Chitte (Vasishta Simha), Cockroach (Sudhir) and Baby Krishna (Devanatha), who are led by uncle (Sachu). Shiva, who is in a race to destroy them, faces many obstacles and downfalls, even losing people close to him, but he adamantly stays the course.
Dealing with this difficult job, he finds solace in Panchami (Bhavana) and Punarvasu (Manvitha Harish). His colleague Ramachandra (Devaraj) finds Panchami a good companion for Shiva.
Will his determined efforts of ridding the place of rowdies be successful, and will his love life bloom are questions answered in the climax. Of course, it leaves us with a hint at a sequel.Suri prefers to call a spade as a spade and, in Tagaru, he has done the same without beating around the bush. There is clarity in the storytelling and the director has introduced the characters well, and masterfully balanced the huge cast.
In this film, there is bloodshed and there is glorification of crime, but he also brings in the saviour. He has captured the dark side of hardcore criminals through mannerisms and language, and has brought out the tough life of a cop.
The crime drama, with stunt sequences at regular intervals, also uses silences powerfully, which is a smart way of depicting varied emotions. Shivarajkumar plays ‘Tagaru’ Shiva masterfully with subtlety.
Dhananjay has transformed admirably and clearly displays versatility. Vasishta Simha’s performance too is worth a mention.
Bhavana has done justice to the character Panchami while Manvitha Harish is not doing a run-of-the mill role, playing a free-spirited girl with ease. Devanatha, Anitha Bhat, Devaraj and Nanda Kishore are part of the huge cast, and all of them have supported well.Charan Raj’s music raises the tempo of the narrative with good songs, and lets it flow seamlessly with the right background score. This young talent shows great promise.
Cinematographer Mahendra Simha has brought in shades of grey in the crime scenes and adds brightness to romantic scenes, leaving a signature on this movie. A film by Suri, can be a must watch, if you like the gangsta genre.