Shankara Full Movie Review: By God’s grace!

Five years after it originally released in Tamil, four years after it underwent a Kannada remake and close to two months after its Hindi version hit the silver screens, the 2011 sleeper hit ‘Mouna Guru’ has been released in Telugu as ‘Shankara’, starring Nara Rohith and Regina Cassandra in the lead.

The time lag in its delayed passage to the cinema theatres is even starker as one sees two artistes Ahuti Prasad and MS Narayana come alive in the film, both having passed away about two years ago.

If the Chennai film can be credited for turning a relatively unknown Arulnithi into a reasonably watchable performer, it partially manages to do so in the Telugu version for Rohith too. For one, the entry and subsequent progress of the hero’s role is reasonably grounded, unlike the hyper, overdone antics which usually one associates with the leading lads of Telugu.

The ambience is small town, the unfolding of events too is close to normal middle-class life and the incidents which shape the silent, strong type Nara Rohith is shown as are passable.

Despite finding it hard to believe that Rohith still plays college student roles, his dour performance actually aids the film’s pace as it unravels its interlinked narration of a student getting unwittingly sucked into a case of crime and passion.

Regina Cassandra has a supporting role of a doctor whose medical knowledge is adequate in diagnosing the trauma the hero gets to face in the later part of the film. Other than this, the quality time she gets to spend with her beau is only to keep him focused on the task at hand and motivating him, rather than wooing him at will.

Gradually revving up its pace and sticking to the original, the film provides a close look at the goings-on between a corrupt, insecure team of cops out to cover their tracks and a hero who crosses their path. It gets enmeshed and finally extricates the hero, with a lady cop’s backing. John Vijay, the evil police man, recently seen in ‘Kabali’, reprises his role from Tamil, adding a few more exaggerated gestures which make it look over-the-top.

Even if one finds nothing problematic with the tailor-made script and screenplay, still, a better known face as the hero, who could have pulled in the crowds, may have boosted the box-office prospects of the film. On that account, ‘Shankara’ loses out on divine support, despite Rohith describing himself as a ‘Trinethrudu’.

Still, it is a kind of a film which does not surprise you with its zippy twists but does not leave you feeling wretched either.

Cast : Nara Rohith and Regina
Direction : Tatineni Satya
Genre : Drama-action
Good : Watchable story
Bad : Looks dated at places