Tagaru is a 2018 Indian Kannada-language action film directed by Duniya Soori and produced by K. P. Srikanth. It features Shiva Rajkumar, Bhavana and Manvitha in the lead roles along with Dhananjay, Vasishta N. Simha and Devaraj in key supporting roles. Shivakumara Swami of the Sree Siddaganga Mutt appears for three seconds in the film while lyricist Jayanth Kaikini and composer Charan Raj make a guest appearance in a song sequence. The soundtrack and score are composed by Charan Raj and the cinematography is by Mahendra Simha. The film was officially launched on 22 August 2016 and the first look was released the following day. The project marks the second collaboration between Soori and Shiva Rajkumar after Kaddipudi. It was reported that for the first time ever, multiplexes across the state of Karnataka are seeing standees of an actor draped in garlands of flowers and money. Outside Karnataka, the film released in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Sangli, Dudhani, Miraj, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Goa and Kasargod. Tagaru was reported to have emerged as the biggest ever Kannada film in the opening weekend outside Karnataka by grossing 10 crores in 3 days. The movie was also reported to be the first Kannada movie to be released in both Kenya and Japan. The film successfully completed 100 days in 15 centers.
Plot
Tagaru Shiva, a daring and an educated cop takes on a ruthless criminal, Dolly to put a cap on his activities. Both the protagonist and antagonist appear powerful and the proceedings of the revenge drama travel like a cat-mouse game. How would Shiva stop Dolly's criminalism, forms the rest of plot. The jumbled screenplay and inclusion of a few near to life incidents are one of the key takeaways of the screenplay.
On 3 November 2015 an article was published with an announcement that after the success of the crime drama filmKaddipudi in 2013, director Soori would again collaborate with actor Shiva Rajkumar for an action film titled Tagaru. However, it was reported that the film would go on floors only after both of them complete their pending projects. On 22 August 2016, the film was officially launched in Bangalore with all the lead cast being finalized. The first schedule was wrapped up on 26 November 2016. The second schedule began on 12 December and was held in Mysore, Udupi, Gokarna and other coastal areas. From 3 March 2017, the third schedule was filmed with actress Bhavana joining the team. The first schedule was held in and around Bangalore and Tumkur while the second schedule scenes were canned at Mysore, Mangalore and other coastal belt regions of Karnataka.
Casting
After finalizing Shiva Rajkumar to play the lead role, producer K. P. Srikanth, a former associate of Kanakapura Srinivas, took up the project to finance. This film marks his second independent film after Shiva which was directed by Om Prakash Rao. Actress Manvitha Harish was selected to play the female lead, marking her second association with Soori after the successful Kendasampige. Later actors Dhananjay and Vasishta N. Simha were roped in to play antagonist roles. Dhananjay's hairstyle was modified to suit for the role. During the third schedule of the shooting, actress Bhavana was roped in to play another pivotal character. Veteran actor Devaraj was signed in to play the key supporting character.
Soundtrack
has been signed to compose the score and songs for the film. The lyrics for the songs are written by V. Nagendra Prasad, Yogaraj Bhat and Jayanth Kaikini.
Reception
New Indian Express rated the movie 4 out of 5 and said "Tagaru manages to fall into the classics category, with intense characters, brilliant screenplay, creative cinematography and promising music including the background score playing with the stunts scenes. This is a simple and familiar story, but it is told remarkably well with Suri’s new style that is non-linear". Rating 3 out of 5, Bangalore Mirror praised it by saying '"If the presentation is all that matters, Tagaru will remain entrenched at the top for a long time to come. When a dazzling screenplay is given a higher pedestal than an engaging plot what you get is Tagaru in all its resplendent glory." but cautioned "It is mayhem. The timeline is impossible to follow post-interval without disengaging yourself from the proceedings. The overweening complexity takes the fun out of the narration. The film tried to look like a Quentin Tarantino film, but ends up like a Ram Gopal Varma film." Deccan Herald called it "A glorious celebration of machismo and underworld gangsta warfare, Tagaru splashes the screen with gut-wrenching gore and bloodshed. This idiom of cinematic narration, ensures novelty and niftyness, certain surefootedness providing Tagaru the zip and style to be engrossed in it.", rating it 3 out of 5. Deccan Chronicle, rating it 2.5 out of 5 warned "More confusions even as several characters keep getting introduced every now and then, making it hard, harder and hardest to stay on with it right till the end. Suri falters at delivering what is most essential in a tale of this nature - a gripping thriller". The Hindu said "This happens to be one of Shivanna’s most mature performances. Suri pays homage to one of his favorite directors Ram Gopal Varma's Satya in the initial portions. There’s the internecine struggle for supremacy, cops and the khadi-clad using goons to eliminate opponents and for extortion. However, Suri's strong visual sense is just not matched by writing skills. It’s as if scattered scenes have been picked up and pieced together on the editing table. A convoluted narrative does not make a film different". Indiaglitz commented that "Soori has applied the earlier Upendra tactics in his narration style and never misses the link. For that audience have to make a long jump in this flashback technique of narration. The terrific narration is very strong in contents although it confuses here and there. Shivarajakumar as an intelligent and cool-headed cop has given a profound performance." While compiling the 25 Greatest Kannada Films of the Decade, Karthik Keramalu of Film Companion had said "The entire film has uber cool written all over it, albeit with guns and billhooks. Tagaru is the star -film of the decade ".
Possible sequel
Suri had revealed that there would be a sequel to this movie even before the movie released while shooting the end credits of this film at the Bandi Makalamma temple. Producer Sreekanth also gave the go- ahead for the sequel, and the team even had the muhurath done with a simple puja.
Upcoming Remake
The copyrights of the Tamil remake version were sold to Tamil director M Muthaiah who had expressed his desire to remake the movie with either Vijay Sethupathi or Karthi.
