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Shiva review
Ram gopal
varma's Shiva
Review :
'Shiva', a non-thrilling
super cop story
By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service
Rating: *
1 /2
Film: "Shiva"; Starring:
Mohit Ahlawat, Nisha Kothari; Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Fifteen years ago, the one-man-army theme used to be much in
vogue. By recreating the 'expected' experience from the past,
"Shiva" comes up with a reasonably unexpected thrill of what
used to be the expected not so long ago.
Remember Amitabh Bachchan making long strides into the villain's
den in "Zanjeer" to reduce his adversaries to pulp?
Welcome to the world of 'pulp friction'. The stakes are high.
Saving the country, no less. Each time our super-cop walks into
the feverish frames, the soundtrack comes alive chanting his
oath for induction into the police force. Ilayaraja's background
music is flush with ominous chants and wails.
Even blood-curdling at times. Mostly, just creating a specific
ambience for the hero's leonine leaps over time and space.
This police story has plenty of force, most of it generated from
the way Varma cuts the old-as-the-hills material into a
newly-rejuvenated shape.
The editing by Nipun Gupta and Amit Parmar is first...rather,
'fist-rate'. Sound of slapping cheeks and cracking bones rent
the soundtrack creating a reverberating sensation of retaliatory
violence meant to combat malignant violence.
The action is swiftly and smoothly vindictive... Shiva in the
den, Shiva in the departmental store, Shiva on a construction
site, Shiva in a middle class food-joint (run by cine-buff Ninad
Kamath who does corny take-offs on Sanjay Dutt, and Rajnikanth)..
The one-man-show-off idea gets its definition mainly from the
fist.
Interestingly, you seldom see Shiva combating evil with the gun.
Bare hands are used to slap his adversaries to a grovelling mass
of terror...that's the way it works. The quieter moments shared
with the journalist-girlfriend Sandhya (Nisha Kothari) are
relatively less effective.
Each time the courtship begins, you wait with an indulgent smile
to let the high-octane action begin.
The encounters with the main villain Bappu (gangster-turned
politician inspired by Arun Gawli) played by Upendra Limaye are
all done-to-bludgeoning death, revivified by Varma's excellent
command over the language of seething implosive rage (seen
earlier to great advantage in his "Satya", "Company" and "Sarkar").
Mohit Ahlawat speaks little and fights frequently. His forte is
reticent retribution. The real heroes are the action directors
(twin brothers Ram Lakshman who also play climactic parts in the
film). The stunts are purely from the 1980s, with loads of
new-millennium attitude thrown in.
You won't think much of the world-weary story. But there's a
kind of old-world charm about this street-smart bone-cruncher,
which hits you with its message of a cleansing chemical.
At the end of it, you aren't looking at Shiva bringing down the
crime graph in the city. You're looking instead at Varma's
clenched narrative that sweeps across the concrete jungle in
overt gestures of ruthless vindication.
The performers include Ramu's usual suspects like Zakir Husain
(corrupt cop), and Shereveer Vakil (ruthless goon). Dilip
Prabhavalkar, lately a hit as Gandhiji in "Lage Raho Munnabhai",
will shock you as a corrupt home minister. Actors often do that.
They change characters.
But the real shocker is the old-fashioned narrative. You've seen
the cop doing his deadly justice act to death. That doesn't stop
Ram Gopal Varma from socking it in our face one more time.
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