JUNGLEE is the story of a vet trying to fight an international poacher's racket. Raj Nair (Vidyut Jammwal) is based in Mumbai and is a renowned veterinarian. He has an estranged relationship with his father, Dipankar (Vijaya Kumar Arcot Ramachandran), who runs Chandrika Elephant Sanctuary. Their relationship soured 10 years ago after Raj's mother passed away. On her 10th death anniversary, Dipankar requests Raj to come back.

Junglee is a story about Raj Nair (Vidyut Jammwal) who is a vet by profession practicing in Mumbai. He's not on speaking terms with his father and blames him for his mother's death. His father runs an elephant sanctuary in Odisha and he returns to it after ten years for his mother's death anniversary. There, he observes that the number of helpers working with his father has dwindled and the sanctuary is facing hard days.

Raj Nair (Vidyut Jammwal) is a vet based in Mumbai who returns home to his father's elephant sanctuary in Orissa after a decade. Thailand masquerades as the eastern state when we are introduced to the elephants - Didi, Bhola, Jamun and others. They are members of the extended Nair family and Raj is quick to re-establish a bond with his childhood friends - human and pachyderm.

When Chuck Russell helms a film, expectations are sky high. After all, the Hollywood director has some iconic movies (The Mask, Eraser) to his credit. So you can't blame us if we expected too much from Junglee. While we applaud the film-makers for coming up with this less explored subject, we were disappointed with the way it eventually turned out.

The movie starts with taking us through an Elephant sanctuary in Odhisha jumping directly to Mumbai. An animal doctor Raj (Vidyut Jammwal) is approached by a journalist Meera (Asha Bhat) who wants to interview Raj and his father for maintaining an Elephant sanctuary. Raj, who is separated from his dad since years, realises he's wrong and goes back to his home town to attend his mother's death anniversary.

In Junglee, action hero Vidyut Jammwal adds "elephant whisperer" to his list of achievements. Junglee, directed by Chuck Russell (The Mask, Scorpion Kong), gives Jammwal several excuses to show off his sculpted body and estimable martial arts skills and suggests that he has a hidden talent: the ability to banter with pachyderms.

Dr Raj Nair (Vidyut), a Mumbai-based veterinary doctor, returns to the elephant reserve, which his father manages, after 10 years. Even as he bonds with his childhood friend, the elephant Bhola, he's shocked to see both the wildlife and the ecosystem under imminent threat. An international mafia gang and a hunter, Keshav (Atul), are running a poaching racket. Raj decides to take on the poachers. His forest ranger buddy Dev (Akshay) and the mahout Shankara (Pooja) become part of the rescue mission.

Elephants always remember. They are gentle giants. They are affectionate creatures: this and other elephant lore comes at us, in bits and pieces, in Junglee, a latter-day jungle safari featuring bad guys, good guys, and a bunch of lovable tuskers. There's not one ounce of complexity in the movie, unspooling in such a linear fashion that even two-year-olds would have no difficulty in understanding it.

There's good news for animal lovers. Here's a film to finally call their own. Junglee, which is Chuck Russell's Bollywood debut makes a case against poaching, ivory objects and cruelty heaped on animals. Beyond this compelling cause, all else is rendered two-dimensional. The characters feel like cartoons. There is some childish attempt to force bad humour. Plot? What is that? Something so wafer thin that you'd have figured at the start itself, right down to the end.

Mumbai-based veterinary doctor Dr Raj Nair (Vidyut), returns to his birth place - Chandrika (an elephant sanctuary) managed by his father after 10 years. He meets his childhood friend Bhola -the King elephant with giant tusk. Raj feels that things have changed and the sanctuary is facing difficulties. A deadly attack on the elephants by a bunch of poachers, led by (Atul Kulkarni), makes Raj stand for his friend Bhola, his father, his love for jungle and humanity.

Elephants have been such delightful protagonists in previous Hindi films that one would be forgiven for expecting Junglee, headlining action hero Vidyut Jammwal to showcase more pachyderm playfulness. Alas, this one takes the dull and dreary route to belabour the point about the peaceful co-existence of man and beast.

The male protagonist of Hollywood director Chuck Russell's first Bollywood flick, Junglee, is a brawny veterinarian blessed with extraordinary abilities. We first see him counselling a young couple whose marriage has hit a trough owing to a jealous pet macaw that cannot stand any show of intimacy between them. Later that day, on the way back from work, the doctor demonstrates dazzling kalaripayattu moves to deliver instant comeuppance to a bunch of miscreants that he catches in the act of torturing a stray dog. It's all in a day's work for a man with a natural jungle streak.

Raj Nayar (Vidyut Jammwal), a veterinary doctor from Mumbai, visits his father after a long gap of ten years in their Chandrika elephant sanctuary (Odisha). Soon after, a ghastly attack on the elephants by a bunch of poachers, led by (Atul Kulkarni), changes his life forever.