Pariah Volume 1: Every Street Dog Has A Name

Pariah is about a man who destroys a dog meat racket in the course of his violent search for a missing puppy. The violence is a bit John Wick-ish and so is the storyline. It’s overloaded with graphic violence and gore. But despite having a predictable storyline, the Tathagata Mukherjee directorial manages to keep one engaged because of two factors – the mystery around the identity of the protagonist (Vikram) and some great performances.
The story revolves around dogs, from strays to pedigree breeds, and how human beings can harm these voiceless animals to satisfy their greed, ego, or whim. The protagonist, a heavily built muscular man who usually keeps to himself, gets pulled into this cycle of violence after the elderly owner of a roadside eatery and several dogs she feeds are violently murdered. While all bodies are accounted for, that of a puppy the man used to feed every day goes missing. This triggers his search for the puppy, who he’s sure, is still alive. In the course of his search, he turns into a masked vigilante who punishes anyone who harms dogs and leaves a trail of bodies behind.
Somewhere in the middle of the film, which is so focussed on dogs, one can’t help notice a glaring blooper. The vigilante punishes a man who abuses a pet Labrador retriever. But what’s shown in the man’s house is a Golden retriever. There are also quite a few gaps in the story flow, especially towards the climax.
Coming to performances, Vikram’s makeover for the role is impressive, and so is his performance. Though his character is not the overly expressive type, he manages to let the rage boil through in several scenes. Even Angana Roy and Sreelekha Mitra have done justice to their respective roles as a worker and owner of a dog rescue NGO. Ambarish Bhattacharya delivers a great performance as a ruthless lawyer who doesn’t hesitate to punish his prize dogs if they lose in dog shows. But the highlight of the film is Soumya Mukherjee’s performance of a meat seller cum ruthless killer. His body language and expressions are spot on during his long monologues about death.
The music is not really a highlight of the film, but the songs and the sounds do add to the visuals that swing between peaceful to violent in a matter of minutes.
Overall, Pariah is a thriller where one man goes on a violent killing spree, is even caught on CCTV, but is never arrested. It’s pretty over-the-top, but the performances and the action are definitely worth a watch.