After a really long time my parents asked me to take them to a movie. This old couple lost kind of lost interest in movies after I took them to some really shitty movies to watch on big screen. (Like Saguni, Saivam)
So when they asked me to book tickets for this particular film, I was a little surprised. But then I understood what attracted them. The cute Belgian Shepherd Idoh!
Yup! That majestic being sitting on top of the jeep was what heavily attracted both my parents and myself. Being a dog lover myself, I wanted to see this movie but didn’t think I might be going to a theater.
The movie titled “Naaigal Jaakarathai” meaning Beware of Dogs has kept the dog as the hero and poor Sibiraj plays second hero. After a long time I am seeing a movie solely based on animals in Tamil. After Devar films, honestly one couldn’t find a good producer who would make films like that.
The movie inspired from “Turner and Hooch” is about a police officer who is suffering from post traumatic stress and a military trained dog who recently lost its owner working together to save the police officer’s wife from a psycho killer.
There are scenes I could recollect from “Marley and Me” and “Hachiko: A dog’s story” showing nice bonding between the orphaned dog and Karthik (the protagonist) Not learning that Subramani (Idoh’s character name) is a trained dog, Karthik tries hard to bring the doggie to some control. Learning the needs of a dog and getting to know that those creatures also need some special care is where he starts liking the beast.
While Idoh has stolen the spotlight from the very beginning, Sibiraj has done a good job by choosing this script for his comeback.The scenes where both the dog and the police officer show their fears to each other and find something common between them is nice. Why there were no scenes where they try to work out their fears? It would have been lovely. Showing that a dog can make anyone come out of any kind of stress easily is meaningful. Doggie therapy works like magic, I say!
The first half covers all the bonding and fun between Karthik and Subramani while the second half takes a rather thrilling chase where Karthik has to track down his wife who has been kidnapped by a psycho killer.
Of course Idoh is the one getting a mass intro scene, a nice song, a comical love scene, an awesome chase and even a superb climax fight.
Sibiraj just runs behind the doggie and tries to out do the effect the Idoh creates on us. Given that ideal dog names in tamil movies have always been Subramani, I am getting real curious behind the meaning of the actual name of the doggie “idoh” It sounds pretty cute and I am sure there is some back story to it maybe…
A meaningful and decent film making everyone fall in love with dogs all over again, even if you are not a dog person to begin with.
As a person who had an interesting encounter with a similar German Shepherd, now I am dead beat in wanting to adopt one myself. Except we need a new space to accommodate the beast. And yeah I prefer calling it a beast… My encounter might be put up at a later time 😉 On demand!
Beware of Dogs! They make you fall in love with them and in the process love yourself…