'Lakadbaggha' movie review: Anshuman Jha's vigilante film is flawed but fun

Lakadbaggha' movie review: Victor Mukherjee's 'Lakadbaggha' ('hyena' in English) has Anshuman Jha portraying Arjun Bakshi, a young man in Kolkata who is a deliveryman by day and a hooded vigilante by night who protects and fights for stray dogs. He prowls the dingy streets of the city, looking for dogs to pet and scare off anyone harassing them using his martial arts skills. In his own words, he wants to be a voice for the voiceless. For all intents and purposes, he is Batman, only for the animals. And similar to the Dark Knight, he has a strict code of not killing, only incapacitation. Though, there is one difference: he does not purposely pick fights and attacks only when he is left with no other option.

Thanks to his acts, he has made some powerful people very angry, for the people who have been his targets have often been part of one or the other underworld gang. One of them is Paresh Pahuja's charismatic businessman, who is clandestinely engaged in the illegal animal trade. But those on the other side of the law are not happy, either. The tales of his exploits have also reached the local law enforcement, and that has rankled them, making them feel inadequate.

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He becomes friends and falls in love with Ridhi Dogra, apolice officerinvestigating his own case and chooses not to tell about his nocturnal persona. Arjun cannot find one of his animal friends and uncovers the aforementioned animal trade.

Oh, and there is also the titular striped hyena, another mammal who most think is one of the canids but is biologically closer to mongoose than dogs, smuggled by the baddies from Uttarakhand's Jim Corbett National Park, intended to be sent to a client in Dubai. Arjun develops an uneasy friendship with the wild, feral animal.

'Lakadbaggha' had an interesting premise. All it needed was a decent execution. And while the film has flaws and is overlong and preachy, it does do what it set out to do — for the most part.

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Jha is earnest and compelling as a man who is more comfortable around his four-legged friends than humans. His awkwardness before his fellow humans comes across as genuine. The performances are good all around, including Dogra.

There is, weirdly, a lot of martial arts combat, and every villain seems to know at least the rudiments of it. So instead of the unchoreographed brawls that really happen on Indian streets, we see a sluggish form of kung fu. I say sluggish because the jabs and blocks are slow. But it is not bad. The choreography is good, actually. But it still feels out of place in a movie set in India.

There are also a few odd choices and plot contrivances. For instance, the plot required goons associated with the illicit animal trade to needlessly bother Bakshi and his love for puppies in a scene, so just decided to do so. There was little need for them to pester him, but since Arjun had to find out about their activities, they had to be especially testy that night. They pick a fight with him even when they recognise him as the dreaded vigilante who takes on multiple opponents and comes out unscathed.

The hyena was digitally recreated, which is admittedly acceptable, as actually capturing one specimen and training it to do whatever the script required would have been extremely inconvenient, not to mention cruel and against the very spirit of the film. But the CGI of the animal, sadly, was just excruciatingly and distractingly bad.

The sincere tone ill-suits the script. It would have been better if the director had yielded and gone full camp. This is a movie in which Tarantinoesque, exaggerated violence would not have felt out of place. As it is, the film, like its hero, appears to be holding back.

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But I cannot in good conscience truly dislike a movie in which its hero often pets puppies and we can hear their whimpers and see tiny tails wagging restlessly. Despite all its flaws, 'Lakadbaggha' largely works because one (by which I mean every dog lover or every decent person) recognises Arjun and his motivations. Though he is not particularly attracted to violence, he is absolutely determined in his quest to protect animals.

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