Title – Jungle Mangal, Producer – Sahyadri Studios, Direction – Rakshit Kumar, Music – Prasad Shetty and Poornachandra Tejaswi, Cinematography – Vishnuprasad, Cast – Yash Shetty, Harshita Ramachandra, Bala Rajwadi, Ugram Manju, Deepak Rai Panaje, Rajesh B, Savitha Yekkur, Pushparaj Bolar and others.
This is a quickie with fine efforts from director Rakshit Kumar and his team. In its 90-plus-minute duration, the director has shown brilliant skill in keeping the audience glued to their seats.
The narration is well supported by the technical team and actors in Jungle Mangal. Set in the Corona pandemic time frame (2020), the situations in the film feel grounded. The environment adds to the realism, and even the costumes for the characters are apt.
There is love, revenge, suspense, and innocence, making it a neat watch with a tidy screenplay.
Divya alias Ammi (Harshita) hails from a poor family. She has three sisters, a drunkard father, and a chatterbox mother who curses her fate. Divya is a school teacher supporting her family.
Divya is in love with Praveena (Yash Shetty). Babu (Ugram Manju), a man with a nefarious background, is a constant disturbance to Divya. He pesters her to marry him. Babu lends money to Praveena in a tight situation and also warns Divya’s drunkard father about the consequences of letting his daughter marry Praveena. Meanwhile, Jagga, a relative of Divya, is waiting to take revenge on Babu.
Praveena and Divya decide to meet in this tense situation in a deep forest. As the villagers vaguely watch the two, commotion builds up. Praveena asks Divya to stay in a strange forest area for half an hour. At this point, a shocking twist unfolds on the silver screen. What happens next is curious for the audience, with winning points in the screenplay.
A pistol hired by Jagga is what sparks curious doubts. Who has committed the crime? You’ll have to watch the film to find out in a very engaging second half.
Harshita, transitioning from the small screen to the big screen, delivers an appealing and natural performance. Yash Shetty, moving from antagonist roles to a softer character, is quite convincing. Bala Rajwadi and the actor playing Divya’s father perform well. Ugram Manju, as the villain, showcases the required strength.
The background score is passable, but the cinematography is commendable.
This is worth watching for how the film shows that situations and circumstances themselves can become the villains in life.
