Shadow Review

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Release Date: 26-04-2013
Starring: Venkatesh,Tapsee,Srikanth,Madhurima
Director: Meher Ramesh
Producer: Paruchuri Kireeti
Banner: United Movies banner
Music: Thaman
Timesofap Rating: 2.5/5

Meher Ramesh is back again with ‘Shadow’. The movie has Victory Venkatesh in the lead role along with Tapsee and Srikanth. Madhurima is seen as Venkatesh’s sister. Thaman has composed the music and Paruchuri Prasad is the producer. The movie has released today across the world, so let us see how it is.

Story :

Rajaram (Venkatesh) is the son of Raghuram (Nagababu). Raghuram is an investigative journalist who infiltrates the criminal organisation of Nana Bhai (Aditya Pancholi) and earns his trust. He gathers evidence against the activities of Nana and hands them over to newspaper publisher CP (Shayaji Shinde). This is discovered by Nana Bhai and he eliminates Raghuram in a brutal manner. He also destroys Raghuram’s family. Rajaram manages to escape from the carnage and he vows to take revenge on Nana.

With the help of Baba (Nasser), Rajaram grows up into a powerful young man. He assumes the identity of ‘Shadow’ and starts hunting members of Nana Bhai’s gang. Meanwhile, Prathap (Srikanth) comes into the story as a tough cop who is also after Nana Bhai’s gang.

As expected, the paths of Rajaram and Prathap cross, leading to friction. But Rajaram soon learns that he has a very strong association with Prathap. What is that association? Who is Prathap? Will ‘Shadow’ succeed in his mission? That forms the story of this film

Positive Points :

Venkatesh has tried his best to carry the film on his shoulders. Despite his vast experience and talent, he couldn’t salvage the project. He looks stylish in a few scenes and has performed well in the fight sequences. Srikanth did a neat job as a police officer. Tapsee looks good, but she does not have anything to do in the movie.

To a certain extent, M.S.Narayana and Jayaprakash Reddy provide a little comic relief. Without them, it would have been impossible to sit through the movie. The title song ‘Shadow’ has been shot well.

Negative Points :

The biggest drawback of this movie is Meher Ramesh. This film seems to be his personal attack on viewers. Atrocious direction and ill conceived scenes never allow the film to recover, despite a strong star cast.

He has tried to incorporate Gabbar Singh’s popular anthyakshari scene into the film, but the end result is very poor. The film also suffers from very bad writing. Logic goes for a big toss and the proceedings end up testing the patience of viewers. It felt quite painful to watch an actor of Venkatesh’s calibre in scenes like the one where he calls Tapsee “Aunty”.

The placement of songs in the film is terrible. The ‘Naughty Girl’ song in the movie comes in at a most inappropriate time and many people walked out of the theater at that point.

The film’s ‘comedy’ scenes are silly and outdated. They end up irritating viewers.

Sister sentiment and mother sentiment scenes are quite popular with Telugu viewers. If well executed, these scenes usually draw family crowds and generate a positive feedback for a film. But in ‘Shadow’, these scenes just do not have any emotional impact.

The climax block is painfully bad. There is a fight sequence towards the end, where Venkatesh fights in total darkness. Only the flashes of gunfire can be seen. Looks like Meher Ramesh took the concept of ‘shadow’ quite seriously.

Aditya Pancholi looks very uncomfortable as Nana Bhai. Rahul Dev and Supreeth are monotonous. Veteran actress Geetha is wasted in a poor role. Madhurima does not have anything to do. Krishna Bhagawan and Vennela Kishore have terribly written characters.

Technical Analysis :

Prasad Murella’s cinematography is not up to the mark. The visuals don’t have a rich feel, despite the grand and extravagant locations. Marthand K Venkatesh’s editing is very bad, but should the editor or the director take the blame for this? Thaman’s background music is ok, but the songs are just very average.

Meher Ramesh’s direction is pedestrian. ‘Shakti’ is a much better effort when compared to this.

Verdict :

‘Shadow’ is a terrible film. Despite the presence of someone as talented as Venkatesh in the lead, poor direction and bad writing end up driving the film into the ground. Meher Ramesh must realise that style without substance will never work.