First Ray Films’ Lakadbaggha (UA) is the story of a young man who loves animals in general and dogs in particular.
Arjun Bakshi (Anshuman Jha) works in a courier company and doubles up as a martial arts teacher. He is a dog lover and has a pet dog at home and another at his work place. One day, he lays his hands on a hyena. The owner of the hyena is Aryan (Pahesh Pahuja), brother of Arjun’s girlfriend, Akshara (Riddhi Dogra). Aryan has plans to sell the hyena to a foreigner. However, Arjun hides the hyena.
One day, Arjun sees that a hotel is serving dog mutton. This enrages him no end. Meanwhile, Aryan’s bodyguard (Eksha Keirung) confronts Arjun who wants to beat up the hotel people for serving dog mutton. Aryan lands up to retrieve the hyena. What happens thereafter?
Alok Sharma has written a story which meanders here and there. His screenplay, therefore, doesn’t make much of an impact on the audience. The viewers get the feeling that an entire drama has been woven around a one-line story and, what’s more, the drama is far from being seamless. Alok Sharma’s dialogues aren’t half as impactful as they ought to have been .
Anshuman Jha has done well. He is especially good in action scenes. But since he is not hero material, it is difficult for him to carry the film’s burden on his shoulders. Riddhi Dogra does well in the role of Akshara. Paresh Pahuja has his moments as Aryan. Eksha Keirung is alright as Aryan’s bodyguard. Milind Soman lends routine support in a brief role as Aryan’s father, Tarun Bakshi. Others are passable.
Victor Mukherjee’s direction is so-so, at best. Simon Fransquet’s music is ordinary. Lyrics (Rabindranath Tagore and EPR) are alright. Jean Marc Selva’s camerawork is decent. Action and stunt scenes, choreographed by Force Square and Kecha Khamphakdee, are quite thrilling. Shantanu Chatterjee’s production designing is fair. Aasif Pathan’s editing could’ve been sharper.
On the whole, Lakadbaggha does not have much commercial value and will go largely unnoticed.
Released on 13-1-’23 at PVR Lower Parel (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Platoon Distribution. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.
