Movie Review: Shaakuntalam
Director: Gunasekhar
Producer: Neelima Guna
Music Director: Mani Sharma
Starring: Samantha, Allu Arha, Dev Mohan, Sachin Khedekar, Mohan Babu, Jisshu Sengupta, and others
Release Date: 14th April 2023
Rating: 2.5/5
Shaakuntalam Movie Review: Samantha and Dev Mohan starrer Shaakuntalam helmed by Gunasekhar ahs hit the theaters today on 14th April. Let’s see the story of Shaakuntalam.
Story: Dushyant (Dev Mohan) is a great king. He sees Shakuntala (Samantha) in a forest and is attracted by her beauty. Shakuntala also falls in love with Dushyant. Both become one by Gandharva marriage. After that, what happened in their lives? How does Dushyant forget the Shakuntala? What does she do to make him remember her? To get these answers, one should watch Shaakuntalam on the silver screen.
Plus Points:
· Casting
· Samantha performance
· Allu Arha
Minus Points:
· Bad VFX
· Slow pace
· Flat narration
· Climax
Performance: Samantha gives the best performance in this movie. She impressed the viewers with her mature performance. Especially in some difficult emotional scenes, she becomes the highlight of the movie with her performance. Mohan Babu, who plays the key role, impresses with his style of acting with his mannerisms. Dev Mohan who essayed King Dushyant does full justice to his role. Dev Mohan’s performance in some action sequences is a special attraction of the movie. The cameo by Allu Arha is one of the biggest assets of this film Shaakuntalam. Mohan Babu is superb in the role of Sage Durvasa. The rest of the actors Sachin Khedekar, Prakash Raj, Gautami, Kabir Bedi and others justify their roles.
Technical: Although Shaakuntalam is an emotional love story, it is somewhat impressive in terms of visuals, but there is nothing new in terms of story. The first half has interesting visuals. In second half, some scenes move very slowly. Especially in the second half, when Samantha’s character gets pregnant, the scene is unnecessarily delayed, the interest in those extended scenes is lost. Director Gunasekhar has tried to make a huge film with huge visuals. Even though some scenes are well shot with amazing visuals, he does write the stories at that level. Music by Mani Sharma is average. The background score given by him is just ok. Cinematography is very good. Every scene in the movie has been shot very beautifully with huge visuals. Editing is ok. The production values are good. The producers made this film without any compromise.
Analysis: Overall Shaakuntalam is impressive only in terms of visuals but disappointing in terms of content.