Tagaru (2018)

Sometime time back, I had mentioned that Tagaru will be a perfect launch for Dhananjaya to pull him into the big league. His immense talent was either less utilized or went unnoticed.

Suri, is a character based Director and casted Dhananjaya perfectly for Daali character in this latest film Tagaru and the result is impactful or has he unleashed a star-villain for Kannada films but care should be taken that Dhananjaya shouldn’t be type casted as he is a star material and will only glide in leaps if the able directors uses his talent properly in future. for both, Tagaru happens to be the 9th film of their careers respectively and their maiden partnership struck the goldmine.

For Suri, Casting such a mammoth star cast with equally talented ones was one of the biggest coups he did in his career. Suri, is a director who very well knows his ability and invests heavily on his craft with all the available resources within his confines. When he made Kendsampige he had to sell off his property to produce it and the outcome was altogether new experience for the audience.

The story of Tagaru is simple and linear. It’s the operation of cleansing society by eliminating the gangsters of same group but what awe-struck the audience is the presentation of the subject ,screenplay, crisp dialogues, razor-sque editing and placing the scenes in a jumbled way which soars and scores heavily and something that reminds of Upendra’s style of film making.

Suri with Tagaru once again ventures into the underworld genre. This genre has been his forte ever since his debut and every time he makes a film in this genre it has a detailing and exploration of the darker side of the society but he makes exception this time by planting a cop in this underworld saga and allows a game between cat and mice.

If the first half goes on killing spree, spilling blood on each frame, depicting grey activities of underworld and placing all the scenes randomly making the audience a bit of restless to connect all the non linear dots linearly; then the second half is all about powerful performances and letting away the plot to thicken giving time for the audience to understand the reasons for restlessness in the first half.

Shivarajkumar is on winning spree these days. He tasted success with Bangara S/o Bangarada Manushya, stamped impeccable authority on Mufti as a Gang-lord and now with Tagaru as a shrewd Cop dominates and completely owns the second half sheerly through his stone faced expressions, dialogues and action. While Dhananjaya as an antagonist largely dominates the screen space every time he comes on it. Every scene of the film gets loud cheer for the mass appeal provided.

The duel between Shivanna and Dhananjaya is a treat, then comes the Combination of Vasishta and Dhananjaya who complements equally and both acted dreadfully by entering the souls of their characters. Though the character of Vasishta as Chitte overshadowed by Dhananjaya’s Dolly but he still holds the ground and etches his visbility. Bhavana–Manvitha are apt, veteran Devaraj is under-utilized and the character Uncle is non-impactful.

The film completely banks on the screenplay, impactful dialogues, razor sharp editing, pulsating background score and soulful music.

On the flip side, some of the grey scenes could have been avoided, story could have been a little more tighter, road journey scenes could have been precise in the first half.

The tireless work of the Technical departments are visible, special mention for Mahendra Simha’s cinematography and Deepu S. Kumar’s editing; while Charanraj has become the new sensation through his music and background score.

Suri once again collaborated with Shivanna, after making a critically well claimed Kaddipudi, and he knew he not only had to surpass the previous expectations but also had to give bigger; thereby ends up gifting himself the biggest blockbuster of his directorial career. His saga of living the open ended climaxes (Kaddipudi – Alpa Virama, Kendsampige – Part 1 – kaage Bangara and now Tagaru – 2) just continues. For his talent, Suri should move away from underworld genre and try in different genres as well.