Tagaru Review: Gangster film, Suri style

This is a simple and familiar story, but it is told remarkably well with Suri’s new non-linear style
Tagaru Review: Gangster film, Suri style

Tagaru has it all -- intense characters, brilliant screenplay, creative cinematography and promising music, including the background score playing during the stunts scenes. The film also has plenty of punch lines by Maasti Manju. But, the man who put it all together deserves most of the credit -- director Suri. Tagaru elevates his body of work, which already has films like Duniya, Anna Bond, Kaddipudi and the thriller Kendasampige.

Cast: Shiva Rajkumar, Manavitha, Bhavana
Director: Soori 

 

This is a simple and familiar story, but it is told remarkably well with Suri’s new non-linear style. He allows each character to play out. Shivarajkumar stands tall, playing a cop to perfection, while 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 to be 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. And the film leaves us with a hint at a sequel.

There is clarity in the storytelling and the director introduces the characters well, and masterfully balances the huge cast. There is both bloodshed and glorification of crime in the film, but Suri 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.  Dhananjay has transformed admirably and clearly displays versatility. Vasishta Simha’s performance too is worth a mention. Bhavana does justice to her character, while Manvitha Harish plays  a free-spirited girl with ease. 

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.

Tagaru is a Suri film, through and through, and a must watch for those who like the gangster genre. 

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