'Shakti'A Nightmare in Tollywood

Making a big film with big budget and heavy star cast is one thing and coming up with a sensible product out of it is another thing. The best example for that is ‘Shakti’, the costliest film ever made in the history of Telugu cinema.

With names like Junior NTR, Ileana, Aswini Dutt, Mani Sharma in the helm and the story like Parasakthi Peetham as the theme, one can expect no less than a bumper blockbuster but then it turned out to be a colossal disaster. Here is a look from the victims ie the audience.

Ranjit, a hardcore NTR fan lamented “I was 100% confident ‘Shakti’ will beat the record of ‘Magadheera’ but within first ten minutes I knew the film was gone.”

Mujeeb, a resident of Guntur said “It was disappointing to see the warrior role of NTR. It was so stale and pale. According to me, Meher Ramesh is the culprit, he made a mess.”

Anusha, who just finished college said “I wanted to start my vacation with a wonderful film and I thought ‘Shakti’ was it, but very disappointing. So much money and such a horrible product, when will the directors learn to mature.”

Ratnakar who applied leave to office for watching the first day first show said “The good side of the film is Ileana. I can watch her for the entire two and half hours if she is onscreen. Rest of the film never appealed to me.”

Ramana who is an avid cine buff said “I really doubt if the budget touched Rs 50 crores, I could not see that kind of graphics, such mesmerizing action sequences, it was just like a regular commercial potboiler made with formula.”

Srujana revealed “Complicated storyline, confusing direction, amateur narration, the film was a nightmare”

Govind, a businessman said “They say that it is the costliest film, why can’t they hire some Hollywood technicians? Why can’t they improvise the script and make it convincing? For instance, the costumes looked so cheap in design and color. And what was NTR wearing as a warrior, a baggy pant?”

Madhusudhan, a bank officer said “Divinity always appeals to Telugu audience and what director Meher Ramesh has chosen is actually a blockbuster material but he doesn’t have the maturity to handle such intriguing subjects, he can team up with Natti Kumar and do some potboiler masalas.”

A reporter said, “It’s not a social fantasy but sounded like a psycho fantasy. Many films face troubles for not having enough finance in hand. But this is reverse. It’s a over budgeted failure”.

While the opinions were flowing in large numbers it was obvious that ‘Shakti’ has upset many and angered a few as they feel a good project was ruined by the director.