Shaakuntalam Review: Gunasekhar wasted huge amount of time with outdated storytelling

The film is directed by Gunasekhar, and it stars Samantha and Dev Mohan in the lead roles.

By Kiran,

Shaakuntalam movie synopsis:

---

Shaakuntalam is inspired by a popular play titled Abhigyana Shaakuntalam, written by Kalidasa. The film is directed by Gunasekhar, and it stars Samantha and Dev Mohan in the lead roles. The film is made on a huge budget, with the investment from Gunasekhar’s daughter Neelima Guna and the involvement of ace producer Dil Raju. But did Gunasekar, who last tasted success in 2004, justify all the money and effort put into Shaakuntalam? Let’s find it in this review for Shaakuntalam by Telangana Today.

Shaakuntalam story:

Shakuntala (Samantha), the daughter of Menaka and Viswamithra, is raised by Kanva Maharshi (Sachin Khedekar). After reaching adulthood, she falls in love with King Dushyanta (Dev Mohan) and becomes pregnant. Dushyanta promises Shakuntala that he will take her to the kingdom as his wife and queen but fails to keep his word. How did Shakuntala reach Dushyanta? Did Dushyanta accept her as his queen? These elements unfold to show us the rest of Shakuntala’s story and history.

Shaakuntalam review:

Shaakuntalam has a simple story that is historic but not so exciting. Though it is taken either from Kalidasa’s play or from Indian mythology, it is neither entertaining nor engaging. It is just one chapter in the ocean of history Indians have, but it cannot be so mandatory. Gunasekhar must have tried some sort of screenplay technique to make it gripping for the modern generation’s audiences.

Director Gunasekhar has wasted crores of rupees on weak storytelling and not so big-canvas filmmaking. Yes, we all know that the director earlier failed with Rudramadevi. But Shaakuntalam belongs to the same group with an additional budget and hungama. Of course, Gunasekhar justified some parts like romance, emotion, and drama. But on a whole, it looks like Shaakuntalam is missing something, and there’s no loss even if one sleeps in the theatre for a couple of scenes. Such a dragged and lagged serial Shaakuntalam is in terms of direction and screenplay.

Samantha is the only green card for Shaakuntalam. She is so elegant as Shakuntala, with looks restricted to facial expressions. But when it comes to her body, it looks chiselled and doesn’t have the softness the character has. This is surely a visual disturbance for the audience. Samantha could attract us as a beautiful young lady, but as a pregnant mother, she totally fails. Every failure of Samantha is Gunasekhar’s mistake.

Dev Mohan has a very huge role in the film, and he is brilliant with his work. He is a good choice by the director.

Sachin Khedekar, Mohan Babu, and Gautami are good in their roles.

Allu Arha is the finest performer next to Samantha and Dev Mohan in the film. She looks so fresh and energetic. The dialogue parts are greatly delivered for her age.

Prakash Raj, Subbaraju, Harish Uthaman, Kabir Duhan, and Jissu Sengupta are totally wasted. This is very poor work from Gunasekhar.

There is nothing much to appreciate in the technical side of the film. The cinematography is okay. Editing could have been a lot better by chopping off at various instances. VFX is not up to the standards of the budget. And finally, the action sequences are the worst in recent times in Indian cinema.

Mani Sharma is absolutely brilliant with his songs. All the songs are superb, with Mallika Mallika being everyone’s favourite for sure. But Mani Sharma is not so impactful with the background score.

Shaakuntalam can be 80 times better than this with the 80 crore budget (as known) the makers have put into the film. It is surely Gunasekhar’s failure again, with him repeating the same mistakes he made in Rudramadevi. The days have changed from casting Allu Arjun to Allu Arha in a special role in his films, but Gunasekhar has not yet updated.