Shivaay Review

Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)

Star Cast: Ajay Devgn, Erika Kaar, Abigail Eames, Vir Das

Director: Ajay Devgn

What’s Good: Just like the trailer, the locations and cinematography of Shivaay are completely breathtaking.

What’s Bad: The plot being inspired from Taken, a lengthy run-time and an epic fail at making any emotional connect.

Loo Break: Needed most in the stretched climax & Ajay-Erika’s awkward love-making scene!

Watch or Not?: Shivaay is an action drama that immense action but zero emotion. Strictly for Ajay Devgn fans because sitting through it for 2 hrs 40 min may be difficult for others.

User Rating:

Shivaay ( Ajay Devgn) is a mountaineer who conducts treks in the Himalayas. On one of his tours, he meets Olga (Erika Kaar) who hails from Bulgaria. After he saves her life in a deadly avalanche, the duo fall in love.

Olga becomes pregnant and is not willing to give birth to a child but on Shivaay’s insistence, she agrees to deliver the child but refuses to raise it with him and leaves to Bulgaria.

Nine years later,Shivaay is happy living with his daughter Gaura (Abigail Eames). After learning that her mother is alive, Gaura forces Shivaay to take her to Bulgaria to meet Olga.

During their visit, Gaura gets kidnapped by a child trafficking gang and thus begins Shivaay’s cat and mouse chase with the kidnappers.

Will he be able to save Gaura? How far will a father to go for the safety of his daughter?

Shivaay Review: Script Analysis

Ajay Devgn’s last directorial U Me Aur Hum had bombed terribly. After years once again trying his hands at direction, the actor now comes up with Shivaay.

Sadly, even with his second film, Ajay’s script sense seems to have not improved. Shivaay has been co written by Sandeep Srivastava and Robin Bhatt. Partly, it is them that Devgn must blame for his film turning out to be a bore. First they rip off the basic premiss from Taken, then amp it up dollops of emotional melodrama on father-daughter relations. Unfortunately, they do not confluence well.

There are many scenes in the film which are meant to be tear jerkers but due to bad writing, turn out hilarious. One such scene would be between Anu (Sayyeshaa)and her father.

Also it is quite a big cinematic liberty on the writers’ part to make Shivaay’s character such a heroic, one man army one. It’s hard to believe that a man who’s never stepped out of Himalayas, would so easily shut down a Bulgarian flesh trade racket.

Certain things that could be a problem are, Shivaay mentioning his friend ‘Kancha’ repeatedly. Also, weird dialogues such as “Jin ladkiyon ke achche Baap hote hai unki (ladkon ke liye) talash bohot lambi hojati hai” feel absurd.

Shivaay Review: Star Performance

Shivaay is an Ajay Devgn show all the way. He is literally there in every frame of the film. Although, he rarely gets a chance to show off his acting chops in the midst of all the action. While he seems better in the second half, his act in the love story seems a little childish.

Erika Kaar could have rather spoken in English than the awkward Hindi that we are subjected to.

Sayyesha’s role is too small and I’m not sure if Shivaay is the best choice for her debut. She does not get noticed in this role.

Abigail Eames does a good job at emoting stuff since her character is speech impaired.

Girish Karnad and Vir Das are extremely unnecessary characters in the film.

Shivaay Review: Direction, Music

After releasing the first logo of the film almost two years in advance, one expected Shivaay to be a masterpiece.

Going by what is served, Shivaay comes across as a film with loads of mindless action that is not always well choreographed. One of the chase sequences runs so long that we totally lose interest in it.

Another problem is that while Ajay’s character has so much grit, the antagonists seem too fickle. There is no sadistic pleasure one may get from the climax fight sequence while watching the villain die.

The cinematography is one of the best things about the film. Bulgaria looks beautiful yet eerie through Aseem Bajaj’s lens. The Vfx too are done quite decently.

On the music front Bolo Har Har has been overused as a background score. Darkhast makes up for a pleasant hear.

Basically it all boils down to the fact that had the film been a little crisper with its run time, it would have been much enjoyable. The forcefully dragged climax turns into a complete snoozefest.

Shivaay Review: The Last Word

Shivaay seems high on never ending action and loud emotion. Visuals don’t fill the void of the missing storyline and hence a 2/5 for the film.

Shivaay Trailer

Shivaay releases on 28th Oct, 2016.

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