Film: Shivajinagara (Kannada)
Director: P N Satya
Cast: Duniya Vijay, Parul Yadav, Ashish Vidyarti
Director P N Satya returns to the gangster milieu of Shivajinagara, and the result is a skilful action film but with an unshakable feeling that ‘we’ve seen it all before’.
The genuinely disturbing Shivajinagara is packed with daredevil stunts and some punchy dialogues, which is a norm in Duniya Vijay’s films, though it is likely to cause nightmares after you’ve seen it.
The first half, narrated in flashback gives a brutal look at the Shivajinagar dons - as seen through the eyes of an engineering student Raam, played by Duniya Vijay.
Fayaz (Ashish Vidyarti) is a local don of Shivajinagar, whose main activity is to grab the lands of innocent people and convert it into a money-making machine for himself.
Raam, who resides in Basavanagudi along with his mother, sister and her two little children is convinced to shift to Shivajinagar to live with his father, a role played by Avinash, with whom Raam had initially developed hatred because of his attitude towards his mother.
Here he meets Pavithra (Parul Yadav), a Brahmin girl, who also happens to be studying in the same college. Pavithra is charmed by Raam’s machismo but is forced to get married to Aditya, someone of her father’s choice. Meanwhile, some goons start hunting for Raam, since he kills Fayaz. Why is Raam pushed to kill Fayaz and what happens to Pavithra forms the second half of Shivajinagara, a mass entertainer, which also has shades of a family drama.
The highlight of the film is the power-packed action sequences composed by stunts masters Kedi Venkatesh, Chennai Ganesh and Mass Madha. Apart from the dialogues, which are a mix of Urdu-Kannada, punch lines like ‘Ee Shivajinagaradali badhakakke dhammu irabeku (one should be bold enough to live in Shivajinagara) and ‘Nan heightgu, nan odegu sambandane ella’ (There is no relationship to my height and my fight) bring in a roar of cheer from the audience.
Vijay is apt in his role. In giving importance to action, bloodshed is in abundance and Vijay is often seen with machetes and cigarettes. He, however, loses on his dialogue delivery, which is not so impactful. Parul does have some role to play in this action film and carries the two shades of her character in an appropriate manner. Avinash has given a splendid performance as the father while Ashish Vidyarti, Daniel Balaji, Triveni, Sumithra, among other characters, have supported well.
Although Shivajinagara does meet the expectations of the action genre, Sathya’s direction leaves his personal style of filmmaking. The film benefits from its technical skills, drawn out of suspense and developed characterisations, though it could have been crisper. However, Satya’s mandate of adding an item song has only added masala to the plot with Zabyn Khan dancing to the tune of Mandya benne kano tuma strongu kano.
Shivajinagara is likely to join movies like Majestic, Kalasipalya and countless other experiments with mafia and morals. If you are game to settle for bloodshed and brutal killing, watch Vijay in this electrifying action sequences.