Shankam - Movie Review

Film: Shankam
Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Satya Raj, Kota Srinivas Rao, Chandramohan, Ali, Venumadhav, Krishna Baghavan, Srinivas Reddy, Supreet and others
Dialogues: Anil Ravipudi
Music: Taman S
Cinematography: Vetri
Editing: Gowtham Raju
Art: A M Vivek
Fights: Vijay and Ram-Lakshman
Produced by: J Baghavan and J Pullarao
Story, screenplay and directed by: Shiva
Release Date: Sep 11, 2009
CBFC Rating: U/A

What’s it about!
Chandu (Gopichand) leads happy life in Australia and stays with his uncle (Chandramohan). He falls in love with local Telugu girl Mahalakshmi (Trisha) at first sight. She runs an Indian restaurant there. Initially, she avoids his advances and love proposals but relents in after a couple of song and dance numbers. When she about to accept his love, she is taken away to India by her aunt to marry off her son. Now, hero lands in Cuddapah where Mahalakshmi’s father (Kota) waging war with his neighboring village lord Shivaiah (Satya Raj). On the insistence of Mahalakshmi’s father, Chandu takes on Shivaiah’s men and then he learns that Shivaiah is estranged father. Rest of the movie is all about father-son sentiment drama with a revenge angle in the end.

Analysis

At the very beginning of the film, one can notice that Shankam is just another formulaic faction drama. 30 minutes into the movie, you become restless as the mediocre and run-of-the mill scenes begin to unfold one after the other. There is no conflict in the flick to make the viewers glued to the screen, nor has it any interesting drama to sit and enjoy. With no good story to hold on, the writer-director Shiva drags on by focusing on masala scenes between Trisha and Gopichand. Much of the romance between the lead pair is filled with double meaning dialogues and gestures. Although first half is okay with some comedy by Ali, post interval the movie drags on and on.

The biggest flaw is that there is no strong villain for a hero to fight with and also the conflict in the story is lackluster. Shiva who directed Showryam with Gopichand earlier has faltered with this wafer-thin storyline.

Performances

Gopichand has tried hard to make the movie watchable with comedy but his characterization in the movie is not interesting. He is just okay. Trisha has done glam role comparatively her earlier movies in Telugu and there is lot of lewd dialogues involving her. Satyaraj as noble rayalaseema landlord has brought dignity to the character. The scene-stealer, of course, is Ali with his perfect comic timing. Also Venumadhav provides some good laughs. Kota Srinivas Rao is repeating the same histrionics that he has been doing for a long time. Rest of the cast is okay.

Music by Taman is its biggest drawback. Not a single song is hummable. His Background score is also substandard. Cinematography by Vetri is neat. Unlike in Gopichand’s films, the film has not much action stunts. Some of the dialouges by newcomer Anil are good.

Bottom-line!

Shankam is very formulaic. Second half is unbearable. With wafer-thin storyline, director drags on the movie for more than two and half hours. First half is the only saving grace.

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