Director: Aravind Kaushik
Cast: Balu Nagendra, Divya Uruduga, Chirashree Anchan, Raghu Pandeshwar
After getting ‘badly’ injured by this Huliraaya meaning the tiger man, for two plus hours, this tiger reminds about the recent TV advertisements of a biscuit with a similar brand name wherein the naughty little ones scares off the villagers saying ‘sher aaya.. sher aaya..’ but in the end, it is just the biscuit packet with a tiger on it! Why compare a biscuit with a film? Well, the reason is simple as this venture is very similar to biscuit advertisement - all hype and sounds ferocious before making the kill but on the day of its hunt, it turns to be nothing but a ‘paper tiger’. It even lacks teeth, head and a proper ‘tale’!
This one certainly does not deserve to be the counted along with ‘new wave’ Kannada cinemas in the recent past. In fact, the abduction tale which is suppose to be an ‘innovative’ peg to this tiger man's tale while depicting the plight of a illiterate person who is born and brought up in a forest area, when migrates to city for his livelihood, only sounds sweet but has no sugar in it when added along with kidnap and senseless love story.
Though at the outset, it initially sounds sensible but the narration and diverted plots spoils its entirely. At times, the cinematography good on screen for having used the natural wild light to good effect and the rest of the performances with that of lead actors have ‘managed’ to put up a good show especially the protagonist Balu Nagendra as Suresaa. Insofar as to watch it further, one may require ‘tiger’ balm to survive the onslaught. Whereas regarding tales around ‘migration’, wild human tales and even the innocent abductions have been done to death including scores of classic ones from the past.
This paper tiger has no head or tale, as Suresaa, an ignorant and illiterate person living along with his parents in the jungle is a carefree person. He has characteristics such as the ferocious soul of a tiger playing on his mind. He can speak English too but only limited to a couple of words. Unlike the other celluloid jungle men, this one is in love with the daughter of a watchman. When forced out of the jungle, he migrates to city through a broker but soon returns. When his girl’s father insists he earns a crore rupees, so as to marry his daughter, he again returns to city but as a changed man, and so on before ‘it ends’. There is an abduction which is quite similar to that of ‘Operation Alamelamma’ but with a wild twist to it.
The only respite is the wild sceneries, as this toothless tiger only roars and kills none.
