Film: Shadow
Starring: Venkatesh,Tapsee,Srikanth,Madhurima
Director: Meher Ramesh
Producer: Paruchuri Kireeti
Banner: United Movies banner
Music: Thaman
Story
Raghuram (Naga Babu) is undercover
investigative journo who makes a document against mafia don Nana
Bhai(Aditya Pancholi) regarding his illegal activities. The report
reaches Nana Bhai who in turn kills the former but Rajaram (Venkatesh),
Raghuram’s son sees his father’s death and he vows to take revenge in
the name of Shadow. Will he succeed in killing Nana Bhai and his gang
forms the rest of Shadow.
Performances
Venkatesh looked quite
different and has experimented with his looks. As per the film, Venky
has trusted the director and followed his instructions mechanically
despite his good experience in films. He has performed his part well
dealing emotional scenes, action sequences but couldn’t rescue the film.
Tapsee is gorgeous but is confined to songs. Her characterization is poorly etched but she impresses with her dance moves.
Srikanth as a cop
delivers a routine performance and Madhurima is natural. MS Narayana as
Psycho Sreenivas and Jaya Prakash Reddy brings few laughs while Krishna
Bhagawan is okay, Rahul Dev is usual, Naga Babu as journalist is brief,
Aditya Pancholi is impressive and he might bag some good roles
hereafter.
Technical Analysis
Cinematography by Prasad Murella is good
and the major part was shot in lavish locales. Thaman’s songs are
catchy but the songs placement like naughty Girl..’ is poor. Background
score is loud. The title song has wonderful choreography and shot very
stylishly. Dialogues are senseless with meaningless Rhyming words,
editing is inconsistent and jerky. Meher Ramesh direction is bad.
Production values by United Movies are bad.
Analysis
Shadow focuses on Style and rich locales
rather than the content like any other Meher Ramesh film. The story is a
regular revenge saga, yet it would have been a safe bet if the film is
packed with gripping screenplay and good entertainment considering the
fact that producers have spent lot of budget on the style.
Director Meher Ramesh failed totally in
engaging the audiences in the proceedings and stuck with style
concentrating on lavish locales, designer outfits, Choppers for dons’ et
al. Venkatesh proved to be director’s actor believing in Meher Ramesh
and following his instructions mechanically. Even the emotional scenes
which are Venkatesh’s forte lacked the needed depth and impact. On the
comedy front, the Gabbar Singh Antyakshari scenes including Venkatesh
and MS Narayana might be a relief to few, while scenes showcasing Venky
as a child, calling Tapsee as Aunty didn’t work at all, in fact they are
terrible.
While the first half runs on a boring
note with routine stuff, the second half totally tests your patience and
the climax fight leaves you disappointed.