Movie review: SHIVAAY

You learn a thing or two about Ajay Devgn after surviving SHIVAAY. Existing virtually in every frame of the movie, he seems to be smitten by self-obsession and engrossed in self-indulgence.
And so it turns out, SHIVAAY is an absolute mess that should never have happened.

For what I understand, movies are made for the audiences.They are manufactured to suit our nuances, crafted to cater to our emotions and customised for our entertainment.
Sadly, SHIVAAY delivers nothing for the audiences. It is strictly by Ajay Devgn, of Ajay Devgn and for Ajay Devgn.(Not even for his fans).

With all its self-indulgence, SHIVAAY might have still worked, if at all it had a coherent script with an emotional core.(After all, it had a father-daughter relationship). Alas, it turns out not just bad, it ends up being disastrous.

There is not one sane moment in the film. Like the film itself, each character and their predicament is either ridiculous or pure bizarre. You seem to loose count of absurdity, as scenes one after another keep unravelling.

So half-witted the characterisation is, the mother acts childishly, the father behaves irrationally and the child never feels like one. Hence, the sympathy and the concern for them never ever surfaces.
The agony is, it ain't just all shallow, it is stupid.

The problems are not few or many. The problem is the entire product.Your patience is not just tested, it takes a pounding. Your intelligence is insulted and your emotions run absolutely dry. What a waste, What a shame.

The audacity of the Director is omnipresent. As if the opening credits weren't enough, the end credit displays Mr. Devgn's name yet again in case we happen to forget who was behind the camera.

Mr. Devgn, we loved you in front of the camera. Behind the camera you have insulted Devgn, the actor and many of us, the audience. We won't forget this easily.

You might gain something from the film, but you surely will loose a lot of credibility.

Don't watch it.

MS Dhoni: Movie review

"It is good that you chose cricket, but beyond that what matters is the kind of person you are"( SACHIN, A BILLION DREAMS), this quote has stayed with me ever since, summing up the entire essence of playing the sport and being the Man.

And here we are then, having watched DHONI and falling short in knowing the Man.Failing to even remotely relate to the kind of person he was or currently is. Failing to come to terms with the Man that got us 2 World cups.
Disappointingly, we have yet another biopic that reveals nothing about the protagonist.

DHONI, AN UNTOLD STORY should have been titled DHONI, TELL ONLY WHAT'S ALREADY BEEN KNOWN STORY.

With DHONI, the intrigue was never in his rise to stardom. 'A small town boy dreaming big and getting it', ain't just about Dhoni. As a matter of fact, it is almost about every third Indian sportsman. And a lot many sportsmen have had a far more challenging, formidable and taxing ordeal.

The intrigue then, is the Man himself. A Man of very few emotions, his ambiguous demeanour has never been an access to what lies beneath the skin. A Man who has been a revelation and yet have faltered on many occasions, someone who has brought laurels to the nation and yet has been questioned about his conduct, should have made for a fascinating and an insightful premise.
A man that won many hearts, but along the way disturbed many a minds.
(His conflict of interest in the IPL, leaving the captaincy Mid-series, decision regarding his retirement and many more).

To be honest, it needed a great deal of research and balls of steel to address the pertinent questions about an Indian Cricket demi-god. Could the filmmaker do it? (last heard MS DHONI was paid 70 percent of the total film's cost to make his biopic). Could the filmmaker even think about it?
Easier way is to be smart instead, cash in the brand of the cricketer and mint money at the box-office.

Hence, the filmmaker played safe and smart, showcasing the flamboyance of the cricketer's batting that has pumped the nation's heartbeat.( Who cares even if you have watched it a 100 times over in the highlights package on Star cricket? Don't forget, you are a true cricket fan and patriot.)

Matters of the heart never needed the mind to intervene.

Alas, I had other ideas.