Shaakuntalam Film Evaluation | Filmfare.com

critic’s ranking: 



2.5/5

Earlier than the start of the movie, we get a writeup stating that the makers have taken The Mahabharata and Kalidas’ play Abhijnanashakuntalam as the idea of the movie. Shakuntala, as we all know, was the love little one of sage Vishwamitra and the apsara Menaka. She was introduced up within the ashram of rishi Kanav, and grows as much as be a comely however harmless maiden. As soon as, king Dushyant of the Puru dynasty wanders into their ashram and the duo fall head over heels in love with one another. She and Dushyant go for a Gandharva vivah, exchanging garlands within the presence of nature and animals and consummate their relationship. Dushyanta goes again to his palace however guarantees to deal with her as his lawful spouse. He offers a hoop to her as a logo of his love. When a pregnant Shakuntala goes trying to find her husband, he doesn’t bear in mind her, due to a curse by rishi Durvasa. She had uncared for Durvasa when he had come to her ashram, and he cursed her that her lover would neglect all about her. Later, the rishi diluted the curse by saying Dushyanta would regain his reminiscence of her upon seeing his ring. Nonetheless, she loses the ring whereas travelling, resulting in a lot misunderstanding , struggling and ache. The lovers do get united after a spot of years and their son, Bharat, laid the muse of contemporary India. 

The movie opens like a Disney movie. A stork is proven flying a crying child swaddled in fabric. The infant is adopted by rishi Kanav (Sachin Khedekar) and grows as much as a gorgeous maiden named Shakuntala (Samantha Ruth Prabhu). Samantha is sort of a Disney princess. The small and massive animals of the forest adore her and even the crops and bushes talk along with her in their very own approach. She’s completely captivated with King Dushyant (Dev Mohan), when he barges into her idyllic world. Every thing is hunky dory, until she’s cursed by Durvasa (Mohan Babu). She undergoes a lot of hardships earlier than the completely happy ending takes place. Dev Mohan additionally will get an opportunity to flex his muscle groups in between and fights droves of Asurs, serving to his buddy king of gods Indra (Jisshu Sen Gupta), wipe out the demons.

Gunashekar is a reliable sufficient director so one can’t work out why he’s mounted the movie as a play. The extreme gestures, the bombastic dialogue and the pointless melodrama doesn’t do justice to a narrative of thwarted love. The narration is so excessive that you just unintentionally snort on the proceedings. For Hindi viewers, the atrocious translation from Telugu additional performs spoilsport. The tune lyrics, particularly, get completely misplaced within the translation. The general influence of the movie diminishes due to the above causes. The movie’s rendering of animals and birds is prime class in some frames and dips beneath par in some. 

As a substitute of going for a dubbed model, the director ought to have launched the movie throughout India with subtitles. Not less than then the singularity of the movie wouldn’t have been trifled with. The current try seems to be too archaic and stilted. And there’s a lack of chemistry between Samantha and Dev Mohan. That additional erodes the movie’s attraction. Samantha gamely tries to convey gravitas to the movie. She seems to be ethereal as Shakuntala however even her grace and sweetness aren’t sufficient to raise the movie. Probably the most endearing parts of the movie happen when Allu Arha, Allu Arjun’s younger daughter, comes on display screen. She performs younger Bharat and her interactions with Dev Mohan and Samantha convey the movie alive. 

Trailer : Shaakuntalam Shaakuntalam Shaakuntalam