Junglee (2019 film)

Junglee is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film directed by American filmmaker Chuck Russell and produced by Junglee Pictures. Starring Vidyut Jammwal, Pooja Sawant and Asha Bhat in the lead roles, the film revolves around a veterinary doctor, who upon returning to his father’s elephant reserve, encounters and fights against an international poacher's racket. The film features martial arts and action stunts performed by Jammwal. The initial release date is preponed by a week, to give Romeo Akbar Walter a solo release. Initially scheduled for release on 19 October 2018, and then for 5 April, it was released on 29 March 2019. Critics have given the film mixed reviews, praising its action scenes, martial arts, and stunts performed by Jammwal himself.

Plot
Dipankar Nair runs an Elephant sanctuary but things have turned bad as hunters are frequently killing Elephants for their tusks. His son Raj a Vet in Mumbai arrives for 10th death anniversary of his mother befriends his childhood animals Bhola and Didi. Keshav, a hunter, has an eye on huge tusks of Bhola which could fetch good money. Keshav kills Bhola for his tusks and also Dipankar who tries to save him. The cops arrive at funeral of Dipankar and falsely implicate him of being with hunters and also frame Raj for it.

Cast

 * Vidyut Jammwal as Raj
 * Pooja Sawant as Shankara
 * Asha Bhat as Meera
 * Makarand Deshpande as Gajja Guru
 * Atul Kulkarni as Keshav Kotian
 * Akshay Oberoi as Dev
 * Thalaivasal Vijay as Baba
 * Kushal Menon as Don
 * Lars kjeldsen as Mr Vane

Production
In September, 2016, it was announced that Jammwal will star as a veterinary doctor in Rohan Sippy's film titled Junglee which will "mirror a unique friendship between man and an animal." Sippy said that the idea of the film came to him after seeing the classic 1971 Salim-Javed film Haathi Mere Saathi, though it also has some similarities with Tom-Yum-Goong. However, the film later went to American director Chuck Russell, who is known for directing The Mask (1994), Eraser (1996) and The Scorpion King (2002).

Jammwal performs an animal flow style of combat for the film. His upbringing in Kerala and his background in the Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu helped him prepare for the role. As a Kalaripayattu practitioner, he grew up interacting with animals. With his prior experience as a stuntman, Jammwal performed his own stunts for the film, which impressed Russell.

While talking about his first experience directing an Indian film, Russell said that he wanted to make a film "that is true to India, but uses the music, dance and the wonderful artists in Bollywood to tell a universal story about returning to the natural world". The principal photography of the film began on 5 December 2017 and was finished in the summer of 2018. Out of 100, four elephants were selected for the film after scouting in India and Sri Lanka. Junglee was shot in Thailand. The scenes involving elephants were shot in the presence of Thai crew members.

Marketing and release
A teaser of the film was released on 17 October 2018. The film's first look was released on 3 February 2019 and featured Jamwal with an elephant in the background. The official trailer of the film was released on 6 March 2019. The trailer has over 30million views and 490,000 likes to its credit since the date of its release. A video, 'Making of Junglee's Action', was put on YouTube by Junglee Pictures just before release on 26 March 2019. The film was certified with runtime of 115 minutes by British Board of Film Classification and released on 29 March 2019.

Home media
The film became available as VOD on Hotstar on 25 May 2019.

Critical response
As per Rotten Tomatoes, the film has scored 57% based on 7 reviews with average rating of 5.25/10. Saibal Chatterjee writing for NDTV rates the film with one and a half stars out of five and says, "Jammwal is about the only bright spot in a pulpy action-adventure film." Renuka Vyavahare of Times Of India gives three and half stars out of five and says, "Watch Junglee for its spellbinding action, cute elephants and gorgeous jungles. Such an adventurous and brave attempt is rare in Hindi cinema." Priyanka Sinha Jha of News18 rates the film with two stars out of five and feels that the film is a big disappointment. Writing for The Indian Express Shubhra Gupta gives it two stars out of five and finds the film comic book simple. Devesh Sharma of Filmfare giving three stars out of five says, "All-in-all, Junglee is an action-packed adventure which also tells us that we share this planet with lots of different species, who have an equal right to it..." Anupama Chopra of Film Companion gives two stars out of five with remarks, "The film’s intentions are admirable and the action is carried off with conviction, but the humans have the depth of cartoon characters." Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in writes, "The message of Junglee is deadly serious, but its solutions belong firmly in the realm of the children’s movie."

Box office
Junglee collected ₹3.35 crore on its opening day in India. Its opening weekend collection from the domestic market was ₹13.85 crore. It collected ₹21.20 crore in its opening week from India. It collected ₹25.70 crore from domestic market, And ₹32.53 crore Worldwide.

Soundtrack
The music of the film is composed by Sameer Uddin while the lyrics are penned by Anvita Dutt Guptan, Kumar Suryavanshi.