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Review: Shikaari can be avoided

Paresh C Palicha says that Shikaari is a shoddy attempt to filmmaking.

Sometimes a film is so bad it makes you wonder how the people involved in this project could bring it to the theatres. That was my reaction after viewing Shikaari, the new bilingual film, made in Kannada and Malayalam simultaneously, with Mammootty in the lead. The film is directed by Abhaya Simha.

The film has the feel of those tacky television serials made for children in the eighties or comic books of the same period with their fictitious freedom fighter heroes fighting the British.

In Shikaari, the rebel (a freedom fighter) becomes the saviour of the villagers as he keeps a tiger (computer generated) that has become a nightmare for them He makes the villagers aware of the revolution taking place all over the country and sows the seeds of patriotism.

There's the mandatory romantic angle

with the beautiful Poonam Bajwa as the quintessential village belle, who falls head over heels for the hero.

The plot could have been digestible had it been handled with a little finesse. But everything is just plain shoddy.

Mammootty, a software professional is interested in the manuscript of an incomplete novel and goes in search of its author to get the full story. There are other symbolic representations as well, a madman who is not aware that we have gained freedom from the British and still shouts slogans for independence and revolution.

The performances are too theatrical. Mammootty and Poonam Bajwa play dual roles, one contemporary and one historical. But both of them look like they have no idea what they are supposed to do. The same is the case with the supporting cast led by Innocent.

Final words, Shikaari is shoddy and can be avoided.

Rediff Rating: