Bail movie story:

A retired cop, Vijay’s (Shivarajkumar) reputation as “ammavra ganda”, extends beyond his personal life to his professional space too, where subordinates wonder how he managed to get to a top rank without any major achievement to speak of. He is, however, jolted into action, when the man responsible for a heinous terrorist attack, which has a personal bearing on Vijay, is set free on bail for want of evidence. Aided by two of his childhood buddies, retired judge Ali (Saikumar) and retired scientist Robertt (Jayaram), sets out to serve justice where the law fails to do so. 


Bail movie review:

On paper, writer-director Pavan Wadeyar’s story for his new film Bail has merit – a former top cop turning vigilante because the law he’d sworn to serve and uphold, fails people, including him. Pavan falters in taking this idea from paper to the screen, presenting a nearly 3-hour narrative with logical issues, bad AI, a wannabe Jailer BGM, unnecessary songs that have no value add and an ending that hints at a potential sequel. 


Having his hero, Shivarajkumar as Vijay, as a former cop who could easily fly under the radar and escape suspicion as the man hunting down criminals out on bail, was compelling indeed. But then, Pavan needed to establish Vijay as this mastermind with fierce wits about him. Instead, he is shown handling a shell casing that’s left behind for the cops to find without gloves and doesn’t see the need for such latex protection when filling up a potential weapon with potassium cyanide. Deadly skin absorption be damned.


All of this is also carried out with the help of his two pals, Robert and Ali, one of who is actually the smartest of the lot and has the technology with which they could have carried out all their ‘projects’ without human involvement, while the other is there only to chime in every now and then with the line, “Are we right in doing this?”. But then, you can’t have an AI-enabled drone doing all the heavy lifting, so, Vijay is not only a master sharpshooter able to deliver a deadly shot from far, far away, but can also take on a gang of 30-40 gun-totting men with a shotgun that he needs to reload after every shot (and not sustain even a scratch).




For what it is worth, Shivarajkumar appears earnest in his role as Vijay, although it is a tad reminiscent of his earlier Ghost. Saikumar, in all honesty, is deadweight in the larger scheme of things, while Jayaram’s horny Mallu uncle act gets jarring. Dheekshith Shetty, who appears in the second half, is impressive in khaki, but gets precious little to flex with. The women of Bail have absolutely no agency.


Pavan’s trusted cinematographer Vaidy’s work is undone by the inclusion of shoddy AI scenes, while Ajaneesh’s best attempt at giving Shivarajkumar a Hukkum comes a cropper. 


Bail movie verdict:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I repeat; this was a case of what could have been but never was. Bail needed better writing to support the core idea.