Kaagar Movie Review: An Effective Political Thriller!

Review: Kaagar
Cast: Rinku Rajguru, Shubhankar Tawde, Shashank Shende, Suhas Palshikar & Umesh Jagtap
Director: Makarand Mane

Viewpoint: ‘Kaagar’ succeeds on a directorial level where it builds an exciting atmosphere of a fast paced political thriller that is stylized on many levels including the background score & the way film is edited. But ‘Kaagar’ is also weak in the writing department, both in  screenplay & in dialogues.

What Works? 

• Up until the first half ‘Kaagar’ is completely engaging & it sucks us into the world it creates. A world that is based on actual villages in Maharashtra & how the politics is connected with the sugar cane farming. The film instantly connects us with it’s subject.
• The two lead characters of ‘Rani’ (Rinku Rajguru) & ‘Yuvraj’ (Shubhankar Tawde) have been created well, we understand their behaviour & their motives especially in the first half. Rinku’s ‘Rani’ character is distinctly different from the ‘Archi’ character of ‘Sairat’ & in the most parts of the film she plays her character convincingly.
• As said above the film is very stylized technically. Even though there are glimpses of ‘Sairat’ here & there, the background score in particular gives ‘Kaagar’ a style of it’s own!
• The pre-interval scene of the film is a major highlight of the film’s plot. It’s a twist that arrives unexpectedly & works really well in keeping us intrigued for the next half. Though what happens in the second half is a different story!

What Fails? 

• The trailer of the film was a major spoiler. It gave away the entire plot of the film! For example we see a major character dying in the trailer & then while we are watching the film we expect that to happen early in the film since it has been revealed in the trailer, but that’s not the case & hence the shock factor of that incident happening doesn’t exist! Ideally the film should have been promoted as a love story based in a political backdrop & not the other way round.
• The film shies away from giving a grey shade to one major character especially when the situation demands it, instead it chooses a safer way by making things happen on it’s own.
• The overall second half of the film doesn’t live up to the first half. There are many plot-holes & some of the important characters in the film are treated wrongly, undermining characteristics of the character & ideally how it should have acted in the situations that have been created.
• Shashank Shende’s ‘Guruji’ was a ‘Krishna’ like figure in this political ‘Mahabharat’ but eventually the way it shapes up takes away all the fun from the character. The actual complexity in today’s politics could have been explored through his character but the makes miss that chance!

Final Verdict: ‘Kaagar’ overall is an engaging & effective political thriller. We as a society are always politically driven & especially currently when it’s the election season going on! Hence ‘Kaagar’ definitely deserves one watch! Not to forget fans of Rinku Rajguru will be pleased by her presence & performance.

Rating: 3/5