‘Bail’ movie review: Shivarajkumar anchors a passable crime drama

In Bail, Shivarajkumar plays a retired cop, popular for being meek on duty and a henpecked husband at home. Imagine an ex-officer with such a reputation becoming a vigilante! Director Pawan Wadeyar explores this interesting idea by giving his lead character a proper arc. Vijay Kumar (Shivarajkumar) targets criminals out on bail, driven by the demons of his past.

After setting up the premise, the director treats the movie with broad strokes, diminishing the core concept. Bail required a more focused approach, with genre-specific highs. Instead, the movie tries to be an all-round entertainer, and ends up a passable crime drama.

What if Bail were a character study of an ageing man who knows the limits of the law—and that, more often than not, justice is delayed? For someone grappling with a devastating personal loss, what does it take to change a broken system when you know you can never achieve a perfect result? Vijay Kumar’s pursuit and plight are real, aided by a former scientist (Jayaram) and a retired judge (Sai Kumar) to carry out his deadly missions.

Again, Bail skips this route to opt for a template approach. Pawan dumbs down his idea in a bid to cater to the masses, resorting to lame jokes from Jayaram’s character, who speaks Kannada with an annoying Malayalam accent. It doesn’t help that he is established as a Keralite in the movie. The character doesn’t need to be from a particular region, and casting a Kannada actor would have been more convincing.

Jayaram’s character provides Vijay Kumar with the technical aid, while Sai Kumar’s legal experience helps illustrate how dangerous criminals often manage to secure bail with ease. However, even Sai Kumar’s character is underutilised, reduced mostly to worrying about the consequences of their actions.

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Bail could have offered a closer look at high-profile cases where the judicial system grants bail to a suspect, which can prove detrimental to the case. But the intention to scale up the movie by adding elements of a commercial film dents its overall impact. That’s why the humour and songs feel odd, especially for someone looking for a gripping drama.

The movie also spoon-feeds a lot, and even the simplest of dialogues are stressed hard to hammer home the point. Vigilante films are as old as the hills, yet the protagonist’s unique attempts to wipe out his targets are somewhat fun to watch. The plot gets a good twist when Inspector Daya (Dheekshith Shetty) is assigned to end the bailed-out murders. However, the movie somehow gets lost in a traditionally wicked villain (Yogi), a needless special number featuring Niveditha Gowda, and a caricaturish senior journalist (Ramesh Indira) trying to investigate the murders.

Bail is Shivarajkumar’s most memorable role in Kannada in recent times, as he plays the morally grey man with grace. As the promotional materials promised, he plays an age-appropriate role, but he finds himself at the centre of a story that largely follows commercial cinema’s familiar template. The movie is still a decent watch for ardent followers of the star, who continues to exhibit his spirited energy on the big screen.

Bail is currently running in theatres