Film: Lakadbaggha

Cast: Anshuman Jha, Ridhi Dogra, Paresh Pahuja, Milind Soman

Director: Victor Mukherjee

Rating: 1.5 Moons

The Hindi film industry has rarely explored stories based on animals, especially dogs. The responsibility to break the pattern is now taken by Victor Mukherjee who has released his directorial Lakadbaggha in theatres. Starring Anshuman Jha, Ridhi Dogra, Paresh Pahuja, and Milind Soman, the film is out for the audience in theatres today. The concept of Lakadbaggha (Hyena) is simple and interesting, but only on paper. 

Lakadbaggha is the story of a young, innocent boy from Kolkata named Arjun Bakshi (Anshuman Jha) whose heart lies in dogs. Since childhood, he is trained to be a martial artist by his father (Milind Soman). The sweet and harmless fellow transforms into a dangerous vigilante when he gets to know rare breeds of dogs are used for smuggling. Akshara D'Souza (Ridhi Dogra) is appointed to track down the vigilante who is called 'Hoodie Baba'.

It is always a delight to see something original served to the audience fresh and hot and Lakadbaggha does that without any doubt. The film explores a concept we've never seen before but the shoddy execution and unconvincing proceedings create obstacles. In 2 hours and 8 minutes, director Victor aims to create a world full of suspense but ends up making it a passable predictable affair. While PETA will certainly be happy with the messaging, the audience is likely to doze off due to the lack of excitement and spark in the screenplay. 

When we speak of action-thrillers, the screenplay has to give you a certain degree of an adrenaline rush, but Lakadbaggha fails to do it on many occasions. Yes, there are some good moments too but that's not sufficient. Some of the martial arts fight sequences look staged and unconvincing despite full efforts by Anshuman. One of the greatest flaws in Lakadbaggha is the typical textbook-style story. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, girl's brother is the main villain and the boy has to defeat him. Haven't we seen familiar stories in the past? It is high time to move on. 2 hours 8 minutes film only around dogs. Yes, this does feel overstretched. It could have been trimmed easily by 15-20 minutes.  

Anshuman Jha shines as Arjun. His action moves are slick and it is evident that he worked extremely hard on pulling them off smoothly. However, the script is a major letdown to his talent and efforts. Ridhi gets limited scope to display her talent. But the gym fight with Anshuman remains to be the highlight of her character and the entire film as well. Milind Soman is wasted completely. Paresh Pahuja as Aryan gets to play a meaty villain but there's barely anything to take back home from his character. 

The cinematography is done well but the music department fares poorly. Lakadbaggha is a rare concept and a poor execution mars its scope. Maybe a sequel is on the way and that could solve the problem. 

PeepingMoon gives Lakadbaggha 1.5 Moons