''Jungle'' is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language

survival Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

produced and directed by

Ram Gopal Varma Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films.** * * Varma has dir ...

. The movie is about a group of bandits, led by forest brigand, "Durga Narayan Chaudhary" ( Sushant Singh), that hold a bunch of tourists hostage. It stars Suniel Shetty as Shivraj, the head of police,

Urmila Matondkar Urmila Matondkar (born 4 February 1974) is an Indian actress and politician. Known for her work primarily in Hindi cinema, Hindi films, in addition to Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, Marathi cinema, Marathi and Tamil cinema ...

as Anu Malhotra, one of the hostages, and

Fardeen Khan Fardeen Khan (; born 8 March 1974) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Hindi films. Born to actor and film producer Feroz Khan, he is part of the Khan family. He made his acting debut in the film '' Prem Aggan'' (1998), for which he won the ...

as Siddhu, her love interest. The

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

film has received positive reviews upon release and was declared a hit. ''Jungle'' received many accolades and nominations, including the Filmfare Award for Best Background Score at the

46th Filmfare Awards The 46th Filmfare Awards were held on 17 February 2001, to honor the best films of 2000. ''Mohabbatein'' led the ceremony with 12 nominations, followed by ''Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai'' with 11 nominations. ''Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai'' won 9 awards, ...

. For his performance, Sushant Singh won an IIFA Award and Zee Cine Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role.

Plot

Anu Malhotra (

) and Siddharth "Siddhu" Mishra (

) are in love with each other and would like to get married. Anu is ready to inform her parents about her future lifepartner, but everything is put on hold, as the family decides to go out on a group

safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

-like expedition. Siddhu also decides to go incognito. The group gets to view wildlife from fairly close distances. Tragedy strikes when the group (except Siddhu) is kidnapped by the

bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, e ...

Durga Narayan Choudhary ( Sushant Singh) and his gang. The bandits commit atrocities on the kidnapped people and finally behead one of the women in order to terrorize the government and extract ransom as well as release one of their men who is in police custody. Once their demands are met, the bandits release the remaining hostages, except Anu, whom the chief Durga Narayan Choudhary has started liking. This is unacceptable for his girlfriend Bali (

Kashmera Shah Kashmera Shah (born 2 December 1972) is an Indian actress known for her work in Hindi and Marathi films. She was also a contestant on the reality shows ''Bigg Boss 1'', '' Nach Baliye 3'' and '' Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 4''. Personal ...

), the only female bandit of the gang. When Siddhu does not find Anu among the released hostages, he sends the illegal arms supplier Dorai ( Makrand Deshpande) to request Durga Narayan Choudhary for Anu's release. He secretly follows Dorai and finally reaches Anu. In the ensuing commotion, he is able to run away with her, with the bandits in their pursuit. They keep searching their way out of the dense forest. Meanwhile, the goons started to reduce in numbers as they get shot one by one during repeated police encounters. Finally, Durga is the only one left. Still mad about Anu, he searches for her. He is about to take Anu away once more but is intercepted by Shivraj (

Sunil Shetty Suniel Shetty (born Sunil V. Shetty; 11 August 1961) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, and entrepreneur, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, with appearances in Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Nicknamed as Anna, Shetty ha ...

), whom he eventually murders, but finally Siddhu beats up Durga and he is arrested. He re-unites with Anu and the movie ends on a happy note.

Cast

as Shivraj Mittal *

as Siddharth "Siddhu" Mishra *

as Anu Malhotra * Makrand Deshpande as Doraiswamy 'Madrasi' * Sushant Singh as Durga Narayan Chaudhary *

as Bali * Himanshu Malik as Pawan Birla *

Raju Kher Raju Kher (born 11 September 1957) is an Indian actor and director. He has acted in many television serials and films. He directed the television serial ''Sanskaar'' in 1999. He is the brother of actor Anupam Kher. Personal life Raju Kher was ...

as Mr. Shekhar Malhotra * Swati Chitnis as Mrs. Sonia Malhotra *

Rajpal Yadav Rajpal Naurang Yadav (born 16 March 1971) is an Indian actor and comedian. His breakthrough came in Ram Gopal Varma's ''Jungle'' (2000) with a negative role. Although Yadav has gained widespread recognition for his slapstick comic performances ...

as Sippa *

Vijay Raaz Vijay Raaz (born 5 June 1963) is an Indian actor, film director and narrator, who predominantly appears in Hindi films. He debuted with '' Bhopal Express'' (1999) and since worked in more than 90 films. His breakthrough came when he played the ...

as Deshu * Ram Awana as Jinda * Gurinder Makna as Makna * Sanjay Kumar as Phoda * Anil Yadav as Bhura *

Avtar Gill Avtar Gill (born 14 May 1950) is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the De ...

as Minister *

Nawazuddin Siddiqui Nawazuddin Siddiqui (; born 19 May 1974) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a National Film Award, an IIFA Award, and two Filmfare Awards, as well as a nomination for an ...

as Khabri Jaiswal

Reception

Critical reception

''Jungle'' received generally positive reviews from critics.

Taran Adarsh Taran Adarsh (born 13 June 1965) is an Indian film critic and trade analyst. He is best known for giving trade figures and box office updates on social media, as well as his reviews for Bollywood Hungama. Career Taran Adarsh started his journ ...

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides n ...

gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Director Ram Gopal Varma deserves a pat on his back for choosing an offbeat subject, going in for a star cast that will not make the distributors' heart beat faster and handling the subject with utmost honesty. To state that this is his finest effort, better than ''Shiva'', ''Rangeela'' and ''Satya'', would be absolutely right ... Every character in ''Jungle'' has a well-defined role, which is why every performance stands out at the end of the day." Aparajita Saha of ''

Rediff Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' said, "''Jungle'' is a movie where the violence is believable, the tension palpable, the emotions credible and the performances real."

Soundtrack

The music for the film was composed by Sandeep Chowta and Sameer penned the lyrics.

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jungle (Film) 2000 films Films set in jungles 2000s Hindi-language films Indian avant-garde and experimental films Films directed by Ram Gopal Varma Films scored by Sandeep Chowta 2000s avant-garde and experimental films Indian gangster films