‘Bairagee’ movie review: Shivarajkumar excels in thoughtful entertainer

Hulivesha (the masked tiger dance), a famous folk form of Karnataka and performed by local youths during festivals, has attracted filmmakers in recent years. Many have used this folk form to etch their characters and use it as a prism to understand the world. Now, Shivarajkumar wears Hulivesha in his latest film  Bairagee, and takes the the audience into a different world.

Bairagee has garnered much curiosity from the audience, because it is Shivarajkumar’s 123 ^rd venture, and is seen as a special number. It symbolises his first three successful films, which got him the title of “Hattrick Hero”. Another attraction for the audience is that of Dhananjaya sharing screen with Shivarajkumar, as the duo’s earlier performance in  Tagaru, directed by Duniya Suri, struck a chord with the audience.

Directed by Vijay Milton,  Bairagee is a remake of Tamil film Kadugu released in 2017, which was directed by the same filmmaker, who has now enhanced the remake with a touch of native elements.

Bairagee stands for the one who has renounced his worldly needs, and the director tries his best to get across this complex concept by creating a special character for Shivarajkumar, which speaks about the ills of society.

Offering a complete entertainment package with all the ingredients, especially action and emotion, Bairagee will not disappoint the audience. At the same time, the director raises pertinent issues, such as physical assault on women and the greed of politicians, among other things, and treats them sensitively, instead of glorifying them.

It is the hard-hitting dialogues which offer much-needed spirit to the film. “Those who don Huli Vesha will not be tigers only when they are in costume; they will always be tigers. As I grew, the tiger also grew in me,” says Huli Shivappa, and this signals what the film is all about.

The introduction scenes of Shivarajkumar, Huli Shiva and Dhananjaya are executed superbly. Similarly, the action sequences by stunt master Supreme Sundar are also worth rooting for. The film, which drags its feet in the first half, picks up in the second, but Milton could have invested much more effort into etching other characters apart from Shivarajkumar and Dhananjaya.

Bairagee also speaks of the moral that one must not live to please others, but be true to themselves. Milton succeeds to a certain extent in creating grey characters, without making them simply black and white. Ultimately, the film will not disappoint Shivarajkumar fans, who were eagerly waiting for this outing the past few months.

Bairagee is currently running in theatres