Junglee review – Mr S’s take
Chuck Russell paints every character as black and white and the perfect audience of this movie without any emotional depth are kindergarteners . Junglee review, brought to you by AboutFlick’s Mr S.
Director: Chuck Russell .
Review: Have you seen Haathi mere saathi? If yes then you might remember how important the elephants were in the movie.
Since then the elephants have improved over the years in Bollywood movies but the actors; not so much! Chuck Russell’s junglee makes them seem gorgeous and yet vulnerable. And yet somehow they are the best part of the movie. As a member of the audience, they got my attention more than any actor in the movie.
Chuck Russell paints every character as black and white and the perfect audience of this movie without any emotional depth are kindergarteners. I don’t blame Russel. Maybe he thought this is perfect for the Indian audiences with little to no knowledge of classic Bollywood flicks.
Vidyut Jammwal plays the vet Raj who grew up with his parents in the jungle where they run an elephant sanctuary and since he did that he can form an amicable link to all the animals. Now whenever it came to the action scenes, you will be able to know that it was Vidyut all along since he does his stunts on his own, but the emotional scenes; though there aren’t many, is where he lacks depth.
Makarand Deshpande teaches martial arts and that’s not the end of it. He also teaches them to connect to nature.
Atul Kulkarni is the sadistic villain who kills animals for the thrill and again doesn’t have a grey area.
Akshay oberoi gets to do the least.
The two leading ladies Pooja Sawant and Asha Bhat are used only as props in the movie. The only thing they manage to do besides not acting, is not messing up their makeup.
The first half somehow manages to keep the audiences engaged by deliberately exaggerating the emotional quotient between Raj and his Father. But 10 years after when Vidyut returns, the second half needed to be only about him! Typical Bollywood drama!
I wished the movie could have been fun where they could have shown a great bond between the animals and humans but at the end I was craving to see the animals only.
Rating: My rating for Junglee is 4/5.
Who should watch this:Before Junglee, you should check out Safed Haathi(1978), Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) , Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya (2000), Tom-Yum-Goong (2005). I believe these are far better movies on relationships between elephants and human beings.