Roar review: Novelty of the concept makes it an interesting film

Do you remember the song Tujhe Naa Dekhoon Toh Chain Mujhe Aata Nahi from 1993 film Rang? If yes then you are likely to remember the guy opposite Divya Bharti. Yes, I am talking about Kamal Sadanah, one of the cute heroes of early ‘90s. He is a director now and his debut venture tries to explore a lesser seen world. 

A wildlife photographer goes to the Sunderbans, one of the most dense mangrove forests in the world, where he rescues a white tiger cub only to be discovered and killed by the cub’s mother. Now, the photographer’s brother Pandit (Abhinav Shukla), who is a commando by profession, is back in the tiger’s territory to avenge the death of his kin. But, despite being a trained soldier he is helpless in a land which belongs to the deadly wild creatures. What will happen to his vows then? Is he on the right track? Should the killer animal be treated as one lesser species and be spared the pain of death?

What’s so uncommon about this storyline? Basically nothing but since time immemorial stories are dealing with same set of nine emotions, and a good storyteller only changes the quantity of the ingredients. Has Kamal Sadanah become successful in doing so? Let’s find out.

Roar is not your typical man versus wild story as it swings between fantasy and adventure genres. There are sequences in the film which are completely fictionalised and lack any factual base but somehow they have turned out to be the most intriguing parts of the film. Anyway, we will talk about the creative liberty later.

The screenplay follows the usual linear structure where the director doesn’t spare much time in establishing the premise. A group of commandos, who wear glamorous clothes and take them off, is out on a mission to kill a so called man-eater. They have all the modern ammunitions and gadgets which they are using for a personal mission. Their anger brings them inside the delta region of the Sunderbans where they are tracked by wild beasts. Very soon, it becomes a direct fight between Pandit’s men and the tigress. This conflict looks stupid because the commandos arrive in the forest with arms and ammunition enough to blow up an entire district.

The man behind the megaphone wants to hide this goof-up with an exhibition of chiseled physiques. You see army print was never out of the fashion and thus the female members of the group keep flaunting their curvaceous figures in hot pants. Male members can also afford to go shirtless because the director very candidly makes one character say, "Sunderban me machchar aur kenchuye nahi hote," (Sunderbans is devoid of mosquitoes and leeches).