Junglee

Junglee

CAST:	Vidyut Jammwal, Pooja Sawant, Asha Bhat
DIRECTION:	Chuck Russell
GENRE:	Action, Thriller
DURATION:	1 hours 55 minutes

Junglee is a story about Raj Nair (Vidyut Jammwal) who is a vet by profession practicing in Mumbai. He's not on speaking terms with his father and blames him for his mother's death. His father runs an elephant sanctuary in Odisha and he returns to it after ten years for his mother's death anniversary. There, he observes that the number of helpers working with his father has dwindled and the sanctuary is facing hard days. He reunites with childhood friends female mahout Shanku (Pooja Sawant) and forest ranger Dev (Akshay Oberoi), as also elephants Didi and Bhola, who has become a big tusker now is the uncrowned king of the elephants. He's followed around everywhere by animal activist Meera (Asha Bhat), who has come to the jungle to make a film about his father and his conservation efforts. His guru Gaja (Makarand Deshpande), who taught him Kalaripayattu, has become a drunkard and warns Raj that the forest is riddled with poachers. However, no one takes him seriously. The warnings are quite real as big game hunter Keshav (Atul Kulkarni) slips into the jungle, kills Bhola and wants to sell his trunks to a foreign buyer. Now, it's upto Raj to try and stop him and avenge Bhola's death.

The film is shot in Thailand, with trained Thai elephants and the interaction with the elephants and humans seems seamless. The close up shots of elephants bring out their majesty and fill you with awe about the glorious creatures. The lush locales make you want to take a long jungle holiday. The film is an all out masala entertainer but still packs an important message about conservation. Poaching is an ugly truth, and elephant poaching in particular should be immediately stopped. The film makes a case that if we stop coveting ivory products, these killings wouldn't take place. It's also a fact that the authorities turn a blind eye to such illegal activities and we're in need of harsher methods to stem the rot. Junglee says all this and more.

Vidyut Jammwal, whose chiselled physique reminds one of Alexander Skarsgård's ripped bod from The Legend Of Tarzan (2016), is the perfect choice to play a vet who is a Kalaripayattu expert as well. The best scenes in the film has him practicing Kalari, as also animal moments, and will make you sign in for a gym class at the earliest. The actor has a reputation for performing his stunt scenes without a body double and does a wonderful job here as well. The scenes inside the police station, where he fights the corrupt police officials despite his hands being handcuffed or the climax scenes where he single-handedly takes care of an entire army of goons offer the most thrills. Pooja Sawant and Asha Bhat aren't cast in arm-candy roles but are shown to deeply care about nature and do their bit to fight the baddies. Atul Kulkarni exudes a subtle menace in the film and takes a break from doing positive roles by playing a hunter with a fetish for difficult shots.

All-in-all, Junglee is an action-packed adventure which also tells us that we share this planet with lots of different species, who have an equal right to it...