Shourya - Movie Review

What’s it about

Shourya (Manoj) completes his studies in the renowned Harvard University but comes to India to lead a life of a teacher. He helps the needy people. One chance meeting with Netra (Regina), a MP’s daughter, turns into friendship and love blossoms. One day, they head to Kotilingala to do the jagaranam (staying awake at the night) in the temple. Late in the night, Netra’s throat is slit by some unknown persons and immediately they take her to the hospital. Naturally Shourya becomes the suspect. What really happened? Who did this? Or has Shourya slit her throat as the police believe?

Analysis

Director Dasaradh is one of the few directors in Tollywood who has good writing skills and sensibilities. So far he has made only romantic dramas. After the failure of ‘Greekuveerudu’, he took some gap to try his hand at different genre –thriller. ‘Shourya’ doesn’t entirely fall in the genre of thriller but it has mixed those elements to a romantic story.

Any incident in life can be interpreted in different ways by different people. This is also called The Rashomon effect. In Kurosawa’s famous film ‘Rashomon’ we see four narrations of the same incident of a rape and killing.

In ‘Shourya’, director Dasaradh starts the movie saying that act behind the incident is interpreted by three stories. One story is imagined by the people. The second story is account of the person who is involved. Third is the actual incident. And thus begins the story with this line. On paper, this is quite an interesting point. But sadly, he has failed to translate the idea on to the screen effectively. Trouble begins right from the point where Manoj meets Regina. When a director begins the romantic drama with heroine getting impressed with hero’s small helpful acts.She falling in love with him without knowing much about his life and background have been used in movies a countless times. Telling entire first half with such boring romance, the writers of the movie have spoiled the good point they picked up.

The narration is very clumsy, screenplay is erratic. Although there are many twists and turns towards the end, the preceding sequences lack novelty. Moreover, the movie runs at a snail pace.

Highlight point of the movie is when Manoj is telling about a factory and the next turn of events are quite engaging. But these come towards the end of the movie. Before that the comedy acts of Prabhas Seenu and Brahmanandam have killed the mood. Pace of the movie, lack of tight screenplay in the first half are major issues of this movie.

Manchu Manoj in the role of Shourya has done neat job though he has looked quite obese. Known for his action roles, he has gone for soft look in this movie and he is quite different when compared to his earlier movies. Dasaradh has extracted good performance from him. As simple girl Nethra, Regina has done her job well. Prakash Raj’s character in the second half is arresting.

Among other cast members, Nagineedu and Subbaraju get a mention. Prabhas Seenu’s comedy has evoked some laughs, though his track is overused.

On technical side, the film has low standards. Malhar Bhatt’s camera and new music director Veda’s songs are just passable. The movie is written by Gopi Mohan, Hari, Dasaradh and Kishore but their screenplay lacks depth. Some of the dialogue is appreciable. Director Dasaradh’s strength is telling love stories. Clearly he has no grip on this thriller genre, which is quite visible. He should have used better screenplay to tell the point of ‘some guys would go to any length for honor and respect’.

Bottom-line: ‘Shourya’ has novel point but it is spoiled by slow narration and lack of taut screenplay.