Shaakuntalam

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.

Samantha is biggest drawback to this movie. Not much expressions and no glamour, her weak expressions leads to feel weakness to audiences. Dev Mohan is ok but not familiar face to Telugu audience another minus. Songs and BGM not apt truly speaking worst. It's a known story but director should show some intensity no elevations. No importance for few characters and poor graphics. Like Srinu Vaitla, it's better to stop makings films by Guna Shekar. Loosing all his reputation. It's time for Dil Raju to stop experiments. Better save money and invest on low budget movies like Balagam. Entire movie no scene creates impact to us.

King and hero of the film has not put enough efforts in his acting, he seems in n out from the character very often. VFX, props, artifacts are at its worst level, not convincing enough. As a audience you can find plenty of mistakes in props selections. Even villains of the story are funnily seems like actors from school drama. You can watch it once with less expectations. If you are already having high expectations then I'll suggest don't waste your time and do not spoil the very well known story of shankutala and King Dushyanth. That's from my side but as I need to add atleast 600 words I'm trying to met that condition.

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 He is bogged down by his own outdated narrative.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.

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 !