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The Jaguar - The French adventure

Over the weekend on Sunday, after a good hearty meal you tend to switch on the TV to browse through and fall asleep. I was doing that and came across a movie called "The Jaguar" ( Le Jaguar in French) in UTV World Movies section. It is a story of a native Indian from Amazon forest, who is on a world tour to create awareness about the rapid loss of forest cover in Amazon, and how he gets entwined in the life of a "happy go lucky" Frenchman, in huge debt due to gambling. It is a not definitely of a classical mould but really absorbing.

The native Indian from Amazon sees this Frenchman in Paris and decides that he would be the right person to defend his tribe against the local mafia trying to exploit the forest. There is an element of witch hunting, soul transition (I dont know how else to name it!!) and other things which are like our "jagan mohini" type films. The person who acted as the native Indian does a fantastic job with body language and facial expressions due to his language barrier. Same with the Frenchman, who has really lived the role (like what our Tamil Heroes would say before every film's release when asked about their upcoming projects!!!!).

Due credit should go to the director for keeping the pace throughout and ensuring that it never sags. As I said, I started watching to fall asleep but couldnot really. It was 2 hours of enthralling movie and in between there were guests at home but I managed to watch the movie till the end.
I dont know if it is one of the all time best or something, but I definitely liked this light-hearted movie. There will definitely re-runs in the movie channel and if you get a chance, please watch this movie.

PS:

I searched for this film in www.imdb.com after I saw this movie and just before I wrote this blog. It seems the director of the movie Francis Veber is a well known comedy films director in France in 1970's and 80's. The cast includes Jean Reno, Patrick Bruel and Harrison Lowe, if you know any of these names. Get to know more about the film here.

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