Wild Dog movie review: Nagarjuna's action thriller misses the mark

2.5/5

For a film that has taken its base material from the real-life hunt and arrest of Indian Mujahideen leader Yasmin Bhatkal by the operatives of National Investigation Agency, the potential for this to be an engaging thriller was immense. But the Nagarjuna action-thriller loses steam fast, mainly due to its insipid writing that suffers from a lack of additional research and a long-drawn out ending.

The movie starts off with a bomb blast in Pune that kills many and leaves more injured. The government ropes in NIA counterterrorist task force agent Vijay Verma (Nagarjuna), also known as Wild Dog, to hunt down those behind the attack. During the course of investigation, two more blasts occur before Verma and his team zeroes in on the mastermind Khalid Bhatkal in Nepal and decides to bring him back to India, alive. 

While Wild Dog is billed as an action-thriller, the action scenes in this movie miss the mark - except maybe for the introduction scene of the task force. The other such sequences feel very loose in terms of its cinematography - be it Vijay chasing a car full of a terrorists with a sniper but only to miss the target at every sharp turn or the team of five facing a battalion of soldiers in a bid to capture Bhatkal. 

The movie is also a good 20 minutes longer than it should have been. That's why the end feel a bit drawn out and the predictability of it all makes the viewing more dull. After movies like Uri: The Surgical Strike, the twists this Ashishor Solomon-directorial offers feel inane. 

The film does have its moments and most of it due to actor Bilal Hossein, who plays the antagonist. Despite some of his dialogues, for instance while assembling a bomb being over the top, the actor does bring in a ferocity to his character. For Nagarjuna, the character of Vijay Verma doesn't offer any challenge. In fact, apart from a scene where he punches a police officer, his character doesn't quite justify the Wild Dog tag as he seems the most calm in the group. The rest of the cast which includes Atul Kulkarni, Dia Mirza and Saiyami Kher feel wasted in limited roles. 

The insipid script and ordinary direction are the biggest villains in this action-thriller that never truly rises to its potential.