In the jungles of Madhya Pradesh rests two Shernis, one is addressed as T12, who is also known as the man-hunter & the other is Vidya (Vidya Balan). She is posted as the area’s new Divisional Forest Officer. A reserved but confident Vidya is assigned the case to find the movements of T12 to prevent her from hunting down humans.
Being as honest & passionate as one could be in the deadly jungles of MP, Vidya finds it tough to delve into the political scenario favouring the patriarch system around her. Surrounded by worthless men, she finds a worthy colleague in Mansoor (Vijay Raaz) who helps her find a midway in dealing with the tigress.
That’s a bittersweet thing about being a great actor, your average performances sharply pop up, becoming vividly evident after delivering groundbreaking roles. Helicopter Eela, Tribhanga did this to Kajol & Vidya has faced this with Shakuntala Devi. Vidya pours in everything to be this restrained yet nimble forest officer trying to do her duty despite facing roadblocks set by a patriarchal society. But, the issue of Vidya being ‘overqualified for the job’ arises because of the weak character-writing.
Vijay Raaz lends solid support to Vidya, underplaying his character to a superior level. Raaz’s simplistic nature of acting coupling with Masurkar’s vision of real characters does the trick for the veteran actor. This explosive lineup of talented actors also includes Neeraj Kabi, Sharat Saxena, Brijendra Kala. All three give unique characteristics to their respective roles. Mukul Chadda plays Vidya’s husband, but his character suffers the burns unnoticed in a sea of gifted masters.
Vidya Balan led action-adventure has a lot of things to like, but we’ve seen them perfected in an already superior product created by the same director. It’s neither a disappointment nor lives up to the hope one could possess after knowing the film’s cast & crew.