Junglee movie review: Too comic-book simple

In the deep jungle, there is an elephant sanctuary. It’s meant to be in Odisha, but other than some characters wearing Ikat saris, and a few vaguely Oriya-sounding lines slung about, it looks like a cross between Kerala and Thailand. Who cares?

Clearly, it takes a non-Indian director to blithely offer us an unapologetic mash-up of ‘kalaripapyttu’ ( an ancient form of martial arts which originated in the southern Indian state), which is what Raj, the most ripped vet on the planet ( Jammwal), practices. Said vet pats exotic long-tailed birds and pet dogs on their head, before heading out to the jungle, just in time to become the animals’ saviour.

Jammwal is a dab hand at action, and those bits are watchable. He is fluid and graceful and believable as he kicks and chops his way in and out of trouble. Those are the money shots: who doesn’t love bad guys getting a taste of their own medicine? And the locations are quite stunning—green, and lush.

But the rest of it is too comic-book simple. The villain is always on the phone to a canny hunter (Kulkarni) who claims he doesn’t hunt for money, but for the thrill of the kill. Kulkarni is kitted out in a sola topi, or something that looks a lot like it, and is surrounded by snarling henchmen with swords and guns.

A female journalist wears shorts on an assignment in the jungle. Another eye-catching woman, a female mahavat, is doe-eyed and pretty, and wears beautifully fitted blouses. It’s all very Jungle Book, and the dangerous bits are kept carefully in check.

It’s the kind of movie in which our hero grabs a venomous snake, and chats with it, and is chatted to, in turn, by a tubby elephant god, who appears in a talking part.