Director: Narasimha
Cast: Shivarajkumar, Vijay Raghavendra, Gururaj, Yogesh, Pranitha Subash, Prakash Belawadi, Sharmiela Mandre, Baby Parinitha, Girija Lokesh
This one has got almost everything, right from corrupt politics to cross border infiltration, terrorism in the valley, armed forces, investigative journalism, court martial, family sentiments and what not even as the list keeps on adding while the mass leader fights them all, right till the end.
Also, with a battery of actors lined up to play various support roles, it is the Shivarajkumar as Shivaraj, who leads them all as a mass leader. In fact, he is in an undercover operation, revealed only in the end! The rest are the just support cast with unconditional loyalty towards him.
As usual, this one too is loaded with the basic commercial elements such as an introductory fight scene, cinematic songs, killing the baddies in style and challenging the opponent with 'khadak' dialogues.
With the mass leader in prime focus, director Narasimha attempts for a smash hit but with so many issues crumbling back to back, the deviation and fussy plots keeps the audience disconnected. Further, the senseless loud background music doesn't help it either, making it an uninterested watch.
For the first few scenes, Shivaraj is up against corrupt politicians, to clean up election malpractice and later scares off illegal Bangladeshi residents who are being misused by local politicians for voting purposes. Soon, the focus shifts on terrorists, a sequence in the foreign location to track down the kingpin of child trafficking. There is a belly dance too performed by the beautiful Sharmiela Mandre, who plays the investigative journalist.
Vijay Raghavendra and Giriraj are the loyalists of Shivaraj and Yogesh, is a local don who initially assigned to kill Shivaraj but eventually turns loyalist too. Pranitha is limited to a couple of scenes and a song. Right from the beginning, wherein the makers' logo is a copied version of Hollywood's premier production house - Warner's Brother's, the film is a mixture of several such copied inspiration. For instance, the very popular ultra slow motion fight sequence from the 2009 English movie Sherlock Holmes is copied here and the outcome is only laughable. Also, there are numerous such instances which only gets worst as the 'plot thickens'.
Apart from a couple of sensible patriotic scenes and Shivarajkumar at his usual best, this Mass Leader is certainly not worth watching unless it might give the hat-trick hero fans some thrill and fun watching him play in several shades including as an army man.
