SHIVAAY - And they found this story exciting enough to be adapted at such a grand scale! Strange, disappointing, silly or conveniently foolish.... altogether! [TTP (To The Point) Review by Bobby Sing]

To begin with, I suppose films are made for ‘We The People, The Fans or The Die-Hard Lovers of Cinema’ willing to catch every new film on the weekend with the same excitement and passion.

But if the so called BIG filmmakers, BIG Stars, BIG Producers and Exhibitors are least concerned about the ‘deliberate ticket price increase’ being charged from us at the time of every big release by these ‘New-Age White Collared BLACK MARKETEERS”, then their films also don’t deserve any detailed in-depth reviews and should only be given that much time and attention they are really worthy of.

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So here is the TTP review of SHIVAAY which was much more disappointing than I was honestly expecting it to be.

Wasting the first 45 minutes in all filmy, seen before and boring sequences of (amateurish) tracking/mountaineering, romance with a foreigner tourist and an illegitimate child born out of the relationship (as usual), SHIVAAY fails to impress in this first section of its screenplay requiring some severe editing. And the film actually manages to grab your attention only when Ajay travels to Bulgaria along with his 8 years old mute girl to find her real mother.

Showcasing the widely practiced flesh trade in the city involving young kids too, it keeps you engaged with a long well-conceived chase and action sequence dealing with the kidnappers. But once it over, Ajay quickly gets into the avatar of Salman Khan/Sunny Deol blasting Bulgarian Police and the local goons reminding you of similar circumstances and story plots seen in GADAR, BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN and the English film TAKEN too. In fact here we again have a mute kid-girl, just like we recently saw in Salman’s blockbuster with a much better enactment, presentation and treatment.

Post intermission the film comes up with an even bigger mess in its every next scene and one keeps waiting for more action sequences (at least) in order to get some kind of return for both the time and money spent on the costly tickets. In short, one never feels emotionally connected to anyone in the film revolving around family relationships (that ideally remains the first requirement for such subjects). And then a too long climax with all illogical sequences within a Police headquarter and more truly remind you of those typical Bollywood films of the 80s featuring the ‘God Blessed’ macho hero with a tattoo of a Trishul, who doesn’t get hurt even after being dragged on the road or fired upon by several machine-guns from a helicopter.

Focusing on a supposedly superhero who can do almost anything in the world with minimum efforts and equipment, SHIVAAY is stunningly shot showcasing the hills, snowstorms and more, but the mountains have nothing to do with the film post its initial 20 minutes to be precise. Moreover some specific scenes once again force me to ask that why ‘the chroma’ sequences can easily get caught in our Hindi films, but not in the foreign projects using it even more extensively?

At an excessive 170 minutes of duration, SHIVAAY wastes too much time on the obvious and gives you nothing great to say about the soundtrack or background score too unfortunately. Featuring the foreign language in few of its important scenes, the director doesn’t even care to explain them with English or Hindi subtitles as required.

Among the actors Sayyeshaa Saigal looks fine in her debut performance of a helping figure (just like Nawazuddin in BB) but the kid girl visibly struggles in her given scenes. Plus, even Ajay Devgun hasn’t got anything fresh to offer to his fans other than the well shot action sequences both as an actor as well as the director.

In short, after heavily promoting the film as some kind of adventure movie, SHIVAAY turns out to be nothing of that sort at all, making you wonder that how come Ajay found this kind of story exciting enough to use for his mega directorial venture made on such a grand scale? No doubt the choice was strange, disappointing, silly or conveniently foolish altogether, coming as a Himalayan disappointment.

Having said that, would still like to end with a very fine dialogue heard in the beginning of the film and it goes as,
“Zaroorat Se Zyada Kabhi Maanga Nahin,
Aur Zaroorat Se Kam Usne Kabhi Diya Nahin”

Go for it, only if you are a die-hard Ajay Devgan fan and cannot give it a miss.

Rating : 1.5 / 5

Note: Addressing the repetitive issue of ‘Unfair, selective increase in ticket price by the Multiplexes’.

Though my site and write-ups might be too small in front of the big runners and my voice raised against this MULTIPLEX MAFIA also might not get heard or reach anywhere.

But what nobody can stop me from is deducting ONE STAR from every such film that takes ‘we the viewers’ for granted (in revolt). So a star goes from the rating of SHIVAAY too since every big actor, director, production house and exhibitor is equally contributing in this sheer exploitation and willfully ignoring the issue over the last couple of years.

Final Rating : 1.5 - 1 = 0.5 / 5