Head Bush Review: Daali Dhananjaya's film is dull, disappointing in every aspect

1.5/5

Story:

Based on Agni Sreedhar’s autobiographical novel My Days in the Underworld, Head Bush chronicles the events that led to the making of Bengaluru’s first bona fide gangster MP Jayaraj. As Jayaraj and his friends grow up disparaged by society, their desire to break the shackles coincides with a major political movement in the city to give them all unmitigated power. The film shows the rise of both Jayaraj and the underworld in Bengaluru and how his attempts to ‘conquer’ the city test his morality, loyalty, and much more...

Review:

In a recent interview with OTTplay, actor-producer Dhananjaya spoke of the prominent anti-hero qualities of his character in Head Bush, alluding to the fact that some of the biggest hits of recent times feature protagonists of this specific kind. He was, of course, referring to the K.G.F movies, the Allu Arjun starrer Pushpa: The Rise and a few others to highlight that as much as one condemns crime and corruption in real life, these fictional characters manifest the secret desire in them to bend the law, live an anarchist’s life, and even get away with it, if possible. And in the same manner, Head Bush’s MP Jayaraj comes as a man who is morally conflicted, vain, and even deplorable at first glance, and yet, he is also inexplicably attractive because his conviction to be what he wants to be is such. 

For Dhananjaya, who has come up the ranks as an actor mainly through his portrayals of gangsters in films like Tagaru, Popcorn Monkey Tiger, etc., Jayaraj is seemingly a tailor-made role and Head Bush a grand opportunity to showcase his vision as an artist, and the fact that he chose to also produce the film enunciates his belief in the idea of the project. And yet, despite the grandeur and promise of the idea, the eventual film rendered comes off as a colossal mishit that not only fails to impact us, the audience, but also ends up being a grave disservice to Dhananjaya’s talent and the vast fandom he enjoys as an actor.

Now, in myriad ways, Head Bush can be seen as a glorious chance that went begging because the makers of the film could not have asked for a more vibrant setup. At the heart of it, the film allows them to unravel the very distinct-yet-alluring history of the city of Bengaluru and traverse a period of political hysteria and unrest through the gaze of gangsters and the underworld: to make things all the more exciting, the team had the services of Agni Sreedhar to design the narrative. Sreedhar, who was himself embroiled in the world of crime at one point, translated his first-hand experiences into multiple successful books that were later adapted on the screen to similar results but in the case of Head Bush, it is his screenplay that surprisingly becomes the film’s undoing. The writing simply lacks any definite perspective and for a gangster drama meant to chronicle the rise of a dominant figure such as MP Jayaraj, the film does not make any sincere attempt to get close to the character by any means. Why is Jayaraj so vehement and passionate about conquering the city? How was he radically different from those who made similar attempts? And what was it about him that helped him attain a demi-god-like status? These are some of the many questions that you are left pondering throughout the film and instead of probing into the character, or presenting an internal journey of some sort, we are handed a highlight reel of sorts that feels unsparingly dull and outdated. Alongside, it doesn’t help that debutant director Shoonya shows no ambition in terms of scale or visual imagination and makes only half-hearted attempts at building the world of Head Bush.

Baadal Nanjundaswamy’s production design does not feature the elegance or the vividness of the world that the film is set in and despite cinematographer Sunoj Velayudhan’s efforts to lend a version of some style, the atmosphere never feels authentic because of the fundamentals being misplaced.

On the other hand, music composer Charan Raj delivers a superb score that carries manic energy and even manages to elevate certain mediocre moments into something worthwhile. The fusion of brass, rock and orchestra sensibilities has a charm of its own but, unfortunately, the soundtrack feels as though it belongs to a different, better-deserving film. 

As far as the performances are concerned, Daali Dhananjaya tries his mighty best to shoulder the film but the lack of any scope of an arc in the writing, and the director's bland vision, do not allow him to make strong impressions. There are glimpses and occasional spurts of something riveting in Head Bush, particularly in the second half of the film when the narrative brings in an antagonist in the form of Kothwal Ramachandra Rao (Jayaraj’s biggest nemesis played by Vasishta N. Simha) and the moral dilemma is intensified, but not to the effect that a subject of this kind demands. Yogesh, who plays Jayaraj’s close aid Ganga, has a few striking moments and even manages to hold his own in key moments; the rest of the principal cast, comprising Balu Nagendra as Samson, Raghu Mukherjee as M.D. Nataraj, Sruthi Hariharan as Ratnaprabha, Payal Rajput as Jayaraj’s wife Reshma, and Devaraj as former Karnataka CM Devaraj Urs, aren’t allowed the room to come into their own as characters.

Verdict:

With Agni Sreedhar’s vast experience, Dhananjaya’s skills as an actor and penchant for roles of this kind, and a young team behind the making, one certainly expected the Head Bush to deliver on the promise of being a slick, new-age gangster film. However, the makers forego a great opportunity to use the Bengaluru underworld milieu to create something unique and instead end up with an outworn film that lacks both nuance and ambition. Daali Dhananjaya’s fans are certainly going to feel miffed with this attempt and the fact that a packed cinema hall remained discomfortingly quiet during the screening proves that the film things haven’t taken off to a great start. Head Bush also releases in theatres at a rather tricky time when the Kantara mania is still very rampant and a film of Gandhada Gudi’s stature is lined up to release the coming week: it would be interesting to see how the audiences react to the film and whether, or not, they overlook the shortcomings.