Cast: Abhinav Shukla, Pranay Dixit, Himarsha V, Nora Fatehi, Varinder Singh Ghuman, Ali Quli, Aaran Chaudhary

Director: Kamal Sadanah

Rating 2.5 Stars

Call it the impact of the ongoing ideological transformation in Bollywood or our cinematicians' increasing faith in the viewing benevolence of cineasts, but in this epoch of Indian cinema our cine logicians have started showing the valor of thinking out of the box. And with every passing day Indian movie making is embracing one or the other cine genre with thorough munificence. The latest incorporation in the list of Bollywood's genre catalog is that of "adventure and fantasy", courtesy Kamal Sadanah's, Man Vs Wild kind of adventure thriller "Roar: The Tigers of Sundarbans".

Well some may say that it's not for the first time when some of the Bollywooder has trailed into the wild territory and that's because over the years we have witnessed movies like Kaal, Agyaat et al. Which uptill some extent tried to portray that Man Vs The Beast combat on the celluloid.


Whereas if we go back to era of 70s and 80s then at that time psyche of our Industrivala's was presided by the idea of showcasing a happy go lucky kind of human animal camaraderie which eventually lead to the creations of the movies like "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Adventures of Tarzan" and many more. Probably after witnessing these changing perceptions about man and animal relationship over the years even this cine domain has undergone a thorough change.

And now with the advent of Kamal Sadanna's animal centric saga " Roar - Tigers of Sunderbans" a new shade has been added to this spectrum. Roar - Tigers of Sunderbans is a cine yarn which at its core has a saga of revenge where a brother enters the core territory of Sunderban in order to avenge the killing of his brother from a tigress (may sound weird but yes it is the premise of Roar). And it's not that this the only thing which Roar - Tigers of Sunderbans has in it. Along with this relatively novel premise Roar has certain praiseworthy element in it too.


Well as far as story and scripting is concerned then contrary to expectation storlyline which is also the creation of movies's director Kamal Sadanaa is a bit flimsy. But at the same time there is no denying the fact that in the era where most of the Bollywood-Wala's are trying to cash upon the tried and tested formulas of masala potboilers and rom-coms, there Kamal showed the courage of thinking out of the box and stepped in the territory which was not explored which is certainely praiseworthy. Undoubtedly Roar is not typical Man Vs Wild cine cantata and keeps on oscillating between the poles of adventure and fiction, but on the hind side it's this constant shift between the two poles which keeps the the viewers' up till great extent absorbed in the onscreen proceedings.

If we talk about the screenplay then it is unidirectional without much of the hullabaloo or redundant obtrusion over it. As far as direction is concerned then Kamal is yet to attain the adeptness which is required to make an above average movie a great cine epic. But on the the other hand the way movie's camera work and photography projects the milieu from the aerial views is simply stupendous and overshadow some of the minor flaws prevailing in the movie. At times flow of the narration of Roar seems to be loosing its pace but the consistently prevailing dose of thrill keeps on compensating.

At last but not the least comes in the most noteworthy aspect pertaining to the movie and that is VFX and CGI which is presented with such a finesse and grandeur that you never feel like taking off you eyes from the big screen. Besides it's the astonishing background score of John Stewart which not only compliments the cinematography of Michael Watson, but at the same time also adds authenticity to many of the action sequences of Allan Amin.


In the performance department it's Abhinav Shukla who literally leads from the front whereas his better half Himarsha V. too succeeds in making her presence feel. Achint Kaur in her short appearance is looks slightly below satisfactory level because of the pseudo masculinity which she tries to portray while being a forest officer. Rest of the cast comprising of glamorous Nora Fatehi, Ali Quli, Pranay Dixit, Subrat Dutta, Varinder Singh Ghuman despite Roar's being their first cine outing up till great extent succeeds in shouldering their respective responsibilities.

To sum up, despite having an OK script and screenplay, Roar up till great extent manages to send across the message loud and clear. Besides the thing which is most praiseworthy about Roar is its being different from all its contemporaries. And the man who deserves a huge bunch of accolades for unleashing his creative liberty is Kamal Sadana who despite being well versed with the prevailing cinematic scenario exhibited the valor of coming up with a stupendously innovative cine idea. So for this out of the box kind of innovation Roar deserves a nothing less than a good two and a half star.