Shankara Review

Shankara Review, What’s Behind: Nara Rohit’s incessant battles with Box Office have come before us one more time as ‘Shankara.’ In fact, this movie lied in cans for more than two years after being censored in 2014. This is a direct remake of Tamil hit ‘Mouna Guru.’ Directed by Thathineni Sathya Prakash with Regina as heroine, let us see how far ‘Shankara’ remained true to the original.

Shankara Story: Shankar aka Shankara (Rohit) is a college going student with noble ambitions and simple living style. He cannot tolerate injustice for sufferers in society and frequently gets into brawl. He moves to Ramadas College, resides in college hostel in same city where his elder brother (Chinna), Vadina (Sathya Krishnan) and Maradalu Ananya (Regina) live. After an incident, Shankaa falls in the eye of corrupt ACP (John Vijay). Meanwhile, ACP and his three sub ordinates including newly appointed cop Rajeev (Rajeev Kanakala) comes across a car accident wherein they find 16 Crores cash. They neatly divert the case onto Shankara and plan for an encounter. However, Shankara escapes from spot but in turn gets implicated with the charges of drug addict and maniac. How Shankara comes clean from the charges is rest.

Shankara Artists and Technicians: Tamil original ‘Mouna Guru’ and Hindi remake ‘Akhira’ have got positive results because of retaining a peculiar realistic flavor in treatment and genuine performances extracted from lead cast. ‘Shankara’ fell flat in both the aspects becoming a mundane product. Screenplay by Sathya is in fact uninspiring. Neither did he grab the Tamil original essence rightly nor got the additional inputs in proportion. Emotionally, the film lied on lowest ebb without finding viewer connectivity. Scenes come one after other mechanically. Direction wise, Sathya wasted a decent opportunity and this could be the fundamental reason ‘Shankara’ became a stale product from last two years. Surender Reddy’s camera work can be called average especially interval encounter episodes are well canned. Editing is a pack of errors. Sai Karthik musical score is poorest among all technical departments both for RR and songs. Production standards are acceptable from V Chandramouli Prasad.

About performances, Nara Rohit’s inflexible body language, unexpressive face and hefty physical look have done irreparable damage to the protagonist. It was hard to sympathize with Rohit despite his pitiful face and straight dialogue delivery pinches us at places. Second half, Rohit does a better job. Regina in a non-glamorous role did not add much. Man who stole the show is John Vijay, who has done ACP role. His barbaric actions justified the depth in character. Rajeev Kanakala tried to get intense without any support from rest. Chinna, Sathya Krishnan and others may not need much mention though Late MS Narayana, Late Ahuti Prasad got brief roles.

Shankara Advantages:

Interval Block

Disadvantages:

Everything

Shankara Rating Analysis: Thriller movies mandatorily need a taut screenplay. Rather than following a proven screenplay from Shantha Ram, why Sathya changed the flow of story for Telugu version is unknown. With those lacking of gripping moments and excitement killed off in very take off, the director went clueless despite having a strong point on hand to execute. Rohit’s screen presence further played the spoilsport. ‘Shankara’ clearly fell midway between a realistic and commercial cinema. 

In fact, the very start off is lethargic. Registering the character of protagonist as less talkative and more inclined to aggression wasn’t neatly done. Regina, Chinna, Sathya Krishnan and others fit to their respective family jobs but without any purpose. Alone John Vijay and Rajeev Kanakala take the initiative to begin the actual plot. Framing Rohit into blackmailing case and encounter planned before pre interval were ripened to an extent. 

Second half is majorly played on Rohit’s hardships and sufferings in society before he begins the retaliation to prove his innocence. Pre climax and climax could have been handled more carefully.

All in all, ‘Shankara’ is a classic case of how remakes can go wrong when a director fails to catch the essence in original. When AR Muruagdoss succeeded to a major extent converting the Tamil story into a heroine oriented Bollywood subject, our Sathya remained unsuccessful in rehashing the same. CJ rates ‘Shankara’ with 2 stars in utter disappointment.

Shankara Cinejosh Verdict: Vankara Thinkara

                                                          Shankara Cinejosh Rating: 2.0/5.0

                                                                                                        Reviewed by Srivaas