Roar: Tigers Of The Sunderbans Movie Review: Has Ample Surprise Elements

Technical brilliance and the film’s stage & setting - This is what makes Roar stand out from the crowd in a major way. In fact the very first promo of the film had managed to intrigue and as Roar came close to release, one was led to believe that there would be a few surprises in store.

In a film which belongs to the adventure genre, it is the way narrative unfolds that holds paramount importance and in that aspect Roar has ample moments to keep you interested. Of course, how much you wished that the context setting was much better. Now that is indeed patchy as you just can't relate to a hunter bringing home a white cub to protect him as there is no justification whatsoever in there. The tigress mother does hunt him down in quick time but then a bunch of hunters emerge on the scene to take 'badla’.

One never quite understands how this bunch was put together but it has to be admitted that their entry is quite stylish with good visuals, edit mode and background score bringing on the adrenalin. Hunter's brother (Abhinav Shukla) puts together a few youngsters who appear to be missionaries for hire and though one is perplexed till the end about contribution of a sexy female (Nora Fatehi) whose only job is to expose in the middle of the jungle, need of others (Varindra Singh Ghuman, Aaran Chaudhary, Aadil Chahal and Ali Quli) is well established.

In the middle of this all, a jungle tracker (Himarsha, who has been a super model in real life) emerges out of nowhere which is straight out of a B-movie. As it turns out though, she has a major role in the film and while her characterization is patchy, you do go with the flow. 

In fact this is the trouble during major portions of the film when certain scenes are put together arbitrarily with no real connection from the one that preceded or follows it. At times some characters are quarreling about issues that audience is never made privy to. On the other hand they get into discussions around 1971 war. Then suddenly an army man screams at a person while addressing him as a civilian in an offensive manner. In the middle of this all there is a guide (Pranay Dixit), forest officer (Achint Kaur) and local poacher (Subrat Dutta) whose real intentions continue to fluctuate and confused.

All of this threatens to take Roar down a route which makes it a candidate for one of those lazy films that don't really solve any purpose. However, this is where filmmaker Kamal Sadanah throws quite a few surprises as makes his film technically so strong that you can take your mind away from the story but not eyes away from the visuals. The way the film is shot is too good with several wide angle shots as well as the aerial view of the landscape making Roar a perfect candidate for being a big screen affair. Cinematography is eye filling, background music is perfect and sound design is intriguing.

To aid this further, there is very heavy use of VFX which make Roar an eye filling affair. Not a single shot of any of the tigers is misplaced and one can never bring out the difference between real and computer generated. The action scenes featuring the animals are done exceedingly well and these are heart stopping moments indeed when tigers come face to face with the protagonists. What is even special is the entire snake sequence that comes in the pre-climax. It is the first of its kinds for a Hindi film. 

Meanwhile, both the ladies in question make sure that they bring in enough eye candy moments to keep audience engaged in 'what' instead of 'why'. As for the male leads, they are required to maintain certain 'sur' in their performances and since nothing mind-blowing is expected in any case due to Roar belonging to adventure genre, they fit into the proceedings well.

In fact producer Abis Rizvi along with Kamal Sadanah deserve to be complimented for the fact that they have come with some never-seen-before visuals while taking best advantage of the technology breakthrough. This only raises the standards for films coming out of Bollywood, as far as VFX are concerned.

Eventually Roar, despite its rough edges in story as well as storytelling, still manages to keep your attention on right till the last frame (literally!) due to its novelty quotient. Never once has a tale been told with a tiger (and there are a bunch of them) as the central protagonist and even though Roar could well have turned into a regular nature going awry thriller, there are ample surprise elements in there that keep you glued to the chair.