Yes, thats exactly what this movie is in reality. As the name must have already hinted, the movie is packed with all sorts of kicks, punches, guns, rifles, knives....U name it and u’ve got it!! An arsenal of sorts! Alas, its much ado nothing....because nothing works in a way to enchant the audience.
Story
This flick is about a girl, born and brought up in Canada, and living with her relatives, who run a hotel/bowling alley, getting married to the manager of that place, and living happily ever after, until of course, the unthinkable happens. What, you may ask...well, I think it suffices to say that its something so weird and ridiculous, u may even walk out of the theatre after witnessing it with ur own eyes. A huge TV screen on the road suddenly starts showing BBC news about riots in his village!! Ha, ha, now thats something even David Dhawan couldn’t have thought of!
Needless to say, hero gets panicky and starts behaving like a Mad person, trying to reach his parents by shouting at and banging the public phones. He rushes home and packs his clothes in a flurry, and rushes out, saying he will be back in 3 days. Finally, the whole family sets out for what could be called, a Needless Adventure into Hell.
As they enter their village, filled with ruffians and rogues of the first order, heroine gets the shock of her life, when the bus in which they were travelling is attacked by a mob and her husband luckily survives when his group of people arrive at the spot to rescue them. Some family fued it seems. They reach the house, rather the fortress in which the whole family lives and go thru some harrowing times with the father behaving like a Male Chauvanist and the father of all rogues. Tougher times ahead for the heroine with her husband being murdered by the other group. Now the problem is that she can’t take her child with her back to Canada. She stay’s back and fights for her child. Finally, after a lot of kicks, chases, yelling, and Shahrukh’s guest appearance, she manages to return home with her son. End of the show.
Those of u who feel what I’ve described above is interesting enough to go watch the movie, u’re MISTAKEN!!! Simply because the premise looks promising does not guarantee viewing pleasure.
According to me, the biggest drawback’s in this enterprise, apart from the somewhat cliched and implausible script are the uninteresting screenplay and really HORRENDOUS editing. The screenplay does not generate enough interest in the viewer to remain at the edge of his seat during the happenings. It becomes pale and stale at the end of the day, with every passing minute inducing an even BIGGER yawn. Also, the songs are placed Horribly. One more glaring loophole is the confusion as to where the village actually is. In Bihar or Rajasthan?
The editing is simply the worst ever witnessed in a Big Budget film. Only god knows what went thru’ the mind of the editor(didn’t see his mention during the credits). He has chopped and pasted scenes so randomly, it really grates on the nerves. Also, the Lengthy scenes during Karishma’s run away from home are completely superflous and could have been chopped.
The direction too leaves a lot to be desired. Krishna Vamsi, who also directed the previous two versions, doesn’t seem to have perfected the either the storyline or the direction. Too many lengthy scenes, especially the scenes when Karishma is running around in the desert are unnecessary, though they have been photographed wonderfully.
A few pluses are the cinematography by S.Sriram, which is simply marvellous and Ismail Darbar’s music, which, though not top notch is worth a listen. Action sequences by Allan Amin are good, though one feels the scene in which Nana Patekar beats up Karishma was unnecessarily offensive and brutal. Art direction is Very Good. Dialogue is crude and rude, keeping with the culture that prevails in those places.
Coming to performances, Karishma Kapoor delivers the goods as usual, but the yelling has got to go. Please spare our eardrums, Lolo. Sanjay Kapoor still doesn’t know how to act and does a disastrous job with his role. No wonder he lands up with roles only in Boney Kapoor films. Nana Patekar does a Marvellous job in a role tailor made for him. Shahrukh Khan does a cameo thats nothing but hype. A grossly superflous role, the movie could have done entirely without his shenanigans.
All in all, Shakti is raw, crude, and above all, condemnable.