Shakti is reportedly the costliest film made in the Telugu Film Industry so far. With someone like Jr.NTR and some more big names involved with it, obviously the expectations are too high. Question is, does Shakti has enough power to keep the box office rocking!
What’s it about :
Faktuni (Pooja Bedi) is the wife of an Egyptian Pharaoh(?) Mukhtar (Sonu Sood) who set his eyes on Maha Shakti Trishulam that belongs to a sacred Temple in Hampi. Even after Mukhtar is killed, Faktuni starts preparing her son Raakha to find the Trishulam! Twenty One years later in Hyderabad, Central Minister Maha Deva Raya’s (Prabhu) daughter Aishwarya, steals some money and runs away from home to enjoy a holiday with her friends. She doesn’t know that she had accidentally slipped into her bag a sacred diamond, Jwala Mukhi that has amazing history and magical powers. In Jaipur, she meets Shakti (Jr.NTR) a local guide, who also accompanies them on their trip to Kashmir, Haridwar etc. Even though they are not cordial to each other, it isn’t long before that Shakti keeps saving her from the repeated attacks of the goons sent by Faktuni! In the mean time Jackie (Jackie Shroff) wants to become the richest person in the world as he offers to sell them yet another sacred item – Maha Khadgam! As the usual sacred date to take over the Trishulam nears, it seems only Shakti has the power to stop Faktuni’s ultimate weapon Raakha (Daniel)! But before that Shakti has to realize the power of all these three sacred items, and how he is related to all of them!
What is Good :
Inspite of an interesting story line, Shakti completely belongs to Jr.NTR. He fully shoulders the responsibility of taking the film to the next level, and seems to have given it his heart and soul. His portrayal of Rudra, a character in the flashback episodes is fairly done, but he has never looked as cool as he looks in the pre-interval fight episode. Even though Ileana’s only dancing ability - the typical belly dance movement, gets repetitive in every song, the Goan lass is pleasing on the eyes.
The other good part of Shakti is that it boasts of heavy casting. Apart from the heavy weights already mentioned above, we see likes of Manjari Phadnis, Vinod Kumar, Nazar, Sayaji Shinde, S.P.Balasubrahmaniyam, Manju Bharagavi, Brahmanandam, Ali, Venu Madhav, Srinivas Reddy, and more! While the story probably had enough to reason why such big names have been chosen in the film, it is the execution of the story that disappoints.
What is bad:
There are two major issues with the movie. The first one is - on the first look of it, the Egyptian episodes, with actors wearing Pharoah like costumes and Pyramids in the background, you might think that the story is happening in 3000 B.C.! But when you realize that the story’s time line is very much ‘Today’, you will be jostled out of your seats. And the second one - even as few characters seems to travel between India, Dubai and Egypt we hardly see any time lapse. These two errors make you cringe in your seat as the story progresses, sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly! The characters of Pooja Bedi and Daniel do not seem to have anything to challenge the might of Shakti, for whom almost every fight seems to be a cakewalk!
Technical Departments :
If Shakti turns out to be a disaster at the box office, it seems there is only one person responsible – director Meher Ramesh. A movie with Fantasy elements associated with Hindu religion, mixed with Telugu action film components sounds like a fair idea. However, Meher completely fails to take the story to the next level, inspite of having five writers, good actors and huge budget to support him. He hangs onto dialogues which we’ve heard before many times and with some bizarre editing the movie seems longer than it is! On the positive side, Mani Sharma’s work in the rerecording is quite noticeable and appealing at times, while Sameer Reddy’s cinematography is good in songs and fights. Almost all the songs have been shot well, and the fight sequences will make Jr.NTR’s fans quite happy. The art director creates a splendid atmosphere around the sacred temple, but fails to create the same with the props! Visual Effects are rich too!
Final Point :
Without any changes in the script, Shakti could have been a much better film. And if you are going without expectations, Jr.NTR and Ileana might offer you some entertainment!
What’s it about :
Faktuni (Pooja Bedi) is the wife of an Egyptian Pharaoh(?) Mukhtar (Sonu Sood) who set his eyes on Maha Shakti Trishulam that belongs to a sacred Temple in Hampi. Even after Mukhtar is killed, Faktuni starts preparing her son Raakha to find the Trishulam! Twenty One years later in Hyderabad, Central Minister Maha Deva Raya’s (Prabhu) daughter Aishwarya, steals some money and runs away from home to enjoy a holiday with her friends. She doesn’t know that she had accidentally slipped into her bag a sacred diamond, Jwala Mukhi that has amazing history and magical powers. In Jaipur, she meets Shakti (Jr.NTR) a local guide, who also accompanies them on their trip to Kashmir, Haridwar etc. Even though they are not cordial to each other, it isn’t long before that Shakti keeps saving her from the repeated attacks of the goons sent by Faktuni! In the mean time Jackie (Jackie Shroff) wants to become the richest person in the world as he offers to sell them yet another sacred item – Maha Khadgam! As the usual sacred date to take over the Trishulam nears, it seems only Shakti has the power to stop Faktuni’s ultimate weapon Raakha (Daniel)! But before that Shakti has to realize the power of all these three sacred items, and how he is related to all of them!