Gurudev Hoysala review: Dhananjaya and Naveen Shankar shine in this engaging action drama

3.5/5

Story:

Gurudev Hoysala, an honest but blunt cop, encounters a vast world of crime in his new posting that demands him to put his life on the line. With a kingpin and his devilish men to contend with and a brutal social hierarchy surrounding him, Gurudev must channel his most resolute and powerful side to overcome it all. Can he help justice prevail?

Review:

In essence, Vijay N's Gurudev Hoysala is a throwback film and I don't mean that in a bad way. Cop films, through the years, have warranted a subgenre of their own and the functioning of this space is quite clear to us by now. When done with a straightforward intent, these films are mainly about justice prevailing over everything else and the cop at the centre of it, like in a utopian world, is the upholder of that justice. In other words, the cop film is a method of restoring faith in the audience which is nothing but a microcosm of society at large. The ethos and the narrative structure of this film remain more or less the same but the cop changes from time to time. He could be an upright, stoic guy like Ajay Devgn in Gangajal, suave-but-dicey like Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry or a misplaced but street-smart man like Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop (or Shiva Rajkumar in Inspector Vikram). The idea of justice remains the same but the pitch, the tone and the approach of the cop differ.

Dhananjaya's Gurudev Hoysala is evidently cut from the same cloth and in his case, too, the operative word is justice. In one of the scenes, he admonishes his superior for relenting to the power of the antagonist and lectures him about the oath that he took many years ago, when he donned the khaki for the first time. The khaki uniform is only a metaphor is the underlying inference but the oath must be preserved till the very end, even if it requires Gurudev himself to break the law.

And this whole metaphorical extrapolation is one of the main charms of Gurudev Hoysala and the film brims with it. The story is set against the backdrop of the hugely conflicted Maharashtra - Karnataka border area and although the writer (also Vijay N) doesn't pronounce the prevailing issue, we understand the necessity of the background. Instead, in an attempt to highlight the divisiveness of the region, he turns the gaze towards the caste-based hierarchy that co-exists.

Trouble begins to brew when a person of a marginalized caste falls in love with the landlord Daada's daughter, an "upper" caste girl, Bhoomi. When the couple marries and elopes, Bhoomi realizes that the boy never really loved her but only cared enough about seeking revenge from her father (played by Avinash B.S) for long-sustained oppression. Bhoomi also means earth or the land on which everything exists and both Bhoomis, in this case, are caught in the mindless acts of one-upmanship. The boy has a valid reason for the revenge, no doubt, but should the girl be used as a pawn? 

But the moral conundrum falls on Gurudev who is held responsible for the damage because it was he who got them married in the first place (believing that they are actually orphans). He must find Bhoomi, the girl, not only to appease his seniors but also to save her from becoming the victim of an unruly battle. I was reminded of Anubhav Sinha's Article 15 at this point where the protagonist, played by Ayushamann Khurrana, must navigate through the vast slush of social hierarchy to find the missing girl. But unlike in that film, writer-director Vijay N does not allow these poignant moments to lend a new dimension to his protagonist, Gurudev. We do see throughout Gurudev shedding tears, putting his life on the line and condemning caste as a concept, but these moments do not come as part of a larger character arc.

Instead, what they do is help the director in elevating his hero. It may seem like a compromise but Gurudev Hoysala was never meant to be a deeper study of social evils, nor does it boast about any such agenda. It is unabashed in mounting up those mass moments but, luckily, within a set confine. Gurudev might be the next Singham but he is human, after all, and the antagonism he faces is pretty darn stiff and mighty. Any mass movie worth its salt is incomplete without a competent villain and Vijay N. delivers on that front without fail. Naveen Shankar is a force to reckon with as Daada's most noble but equally cold and ruthless 'servant' (he himself describes his character as a 'ferocious dog') Bali. The actor, too, has evidently gotten under the skin of his character and the sequences featuring him and Dhananjaya are particularly engaging.

Dhananjaya, a solid performer in his own right, holds his own but his performance is accentuated further when he is pitted against the villains. Avinash B.S., as Daada, is very good but comes off as a tad one-toned with the constant rambling about caste and pride. Prathap Narayan as his son Naana is quite impactful himself but here, too, the lack of any considerable depth to his antagonism is a little disappointing. Achyuth Kumar, Raghu Shivamogga, Manasi Sudhir and others do well as part of the ensemble and the director must be given credit for neither overutilizing these characters nor rendering them insignificant. Amrutha Iyengar as Gurudev Hoysala's 'wife' remains limited to the archetype and unfortunately, has little bearing on the plot.

Anirudh Bhat as Ravi, the boy, and Mayuri Nataraj as Bhoomi require a special mention for delivering impressive performances and imbuing their characters with a sense of reality and depth.

Ajaneesh Loknath's score is a good fit for the world of Gurudev Hoysala and the three songs that feature in the 2-hour-16-minute runtime are nice. Karthik S, the cinematographer is proficient but I would have liked for the film to boast a unique visual palette of its own.

Verdict:

There's a lot to savour in Gurudev Hoysala with Dhananjaya and Naveen Shankar's performances being the two main highlights. The screen is lit-up every time the two appear together and it helps that the two actors guide their respective characters with the right amount of energy. The central plot, too, is engaging but not devoid of inconsistencies - as already pointed out, the film would have fared much better had there been a character arc of some kind in place. The villains, too, are a little one-dimensional but the crispness of the narrative salvages the film. In short, Gurudev Hoysala is the return of the good ol' cop movie but with a few enterprising additions that make it a worthwhile watch.