Shaakuntalam

Gunashekar brings on screen the tale of Abhignyana Shakuntalam and completely fails in doing justice. He is bogged down by his own outdated narrative. While narrating a known story, there should be a tad bit of freshness to it at the very least which was completely missing here like the non-existing chemistry between Samantha and Dev Mohan. The only believable character turned out to be Durvasa Muni played by Mohan Babu.

The narrative is poor and slow paced along with the tacky visuals, the film simply tests the patience of the viewers who might even find the dialect bit too hard to digest. This adaptation would work only if the audience buy into the premise and connect to the characters. The songs were forgettable. The introduction of the villains and the final battle simply prolonged the story. The VFX was simply that below par.

As far as the performances go, Samantha as Shakuntala and Dev Mohan as Dushyant have tried to be as earnest as they can but they simply don't fit these characters to make their love story believable or even have any impact. The supporting cast especially the ones like Shiva Balaji used for comic relief, went over the top. I am harsh but even if I try to be lenient, there isn't a single thing in this film that stands out.

Why story was changed from original book by Mahakavi Kalidasa? Script writer thought he can do justice with story which Great Kalidasa missed, and with this sole of movie killed.

Shakuntala went to Shantanu with her son, and movie shows she went when she was pregnant.

Great Shantanu can't even think of insulting a woman that too when she was pregnant, but story did great injustice with history as well as movie.

Looks South cinema has started getting inspiration from Mumbai cinema, so sorry to say you are losing credibility when South cinema earned in last 2-3 years. Your choice, as this is your money and area.

Need to research before portray the story. In movie, Shankuntla's friends were talking about Ramayana's characters but it happened much later.

In Ramayana as brahamrishi Viswamitra shared his past experiences with Shri Ram and Laxman ji that sensuality misguide male and can keep away from deeds by giving example of Menaka and his relationship. Menaka was the mother of Shakuntla and Vishwamitra was her father. Rishi after achieving the degree of Brahamrishi, invited for a meeting in devlok by Indra and Vashishtha. Later it was decided Vishwamitra will take test of king Harishchandra who was the greatest follower of truth. Between Harishchandra and lord Rama there is huge generation gap. King Dushyant was contemporary of Chanchu (3-4 generations next to King Harishchandra)

So this story is chronologically defective with many more respect.

I went to watch the movie with high expectations but the poor Execution of the movie didn't keep me tied up in the cinema hall. The story of Shakuntala, which I heard from my grandmother as a child, replaced the story I thought was very different, the graphics of the film were less, the film does not seem to be shot in the jungle from any angle. No one will believes that this movie came from South Industry where we have seen Bahubali, RRR, KGF etc movie which are very prominent VFX. Sorry to say, but Samantha for the character of Shakuntala is not a good choice. This movie is not for her. Thank you.

Gunasekar should start making Telugu serials instead of making wasting top talent. Time and again he has proved off late that he has lost his touch to make good content. The movie fails in every department right from the inception to the screenplay to the CGI to the dialogues. Samantha's performance was good but her imperfect Telugu wasn't suitable for the role.

Allu Arjun's daughter did a really good job in the movie. She's the standout actor in the entire movie.

I literally stayed back in the theater for the AC so that I could avoid the extreme heat outside.

One big big headache of a movie !