Shivaay

Shivaay is an extremely stretched out hero worshipping movie that moves in a really sluggish pace. It is almost a 3 hour long movie and I can guarantee you that you might feel like you have spent half the day inside the theater. Built around a father-daughter relationship idea, Shivaay just inst a logically convincing cinema and with only the earnest acting of that kid Abigail working in favor of the film, it’s a disappointment.

Shivaay is this expert mountaineer who helps army, takes people for dangerous trucking etc. One such trucking expedition ended up in a relationship between Shivaay and a Bulgarian girl Olga. When they both had a child, Gaura, Olga left India to pursue her career. The movie Shivaay actually focuses on the events that happen in Bulgaria, when Shivaay got forced to go there with Gaura as she insisted on seeing her mother.

Shivaay being this mountaineer has no real importance to be honest. It is not connected to the content in a way that you can’t imagine the movie without snow falls and mountains. The movie is worshipping its hero very generously. You have Ajay Devgan performing a “great” jump and delivering a one liner which is followed by the director credits. And a lot of instances are simply included in to the content just to make the hero look like this cool, well built, selfless guy. The sluggishness I mentioned is the other problem the film has. Shivaay would be one movie which you will skip a lot while watching it in DVD. The kind of melodramatic silences and pauses the narrative has just isn’t attractive because of the lack of depth in the story. The routine chasing and emotional dramas unfold very gradually.

Ajay Devgan seems to have this love for presenting movies in a visually appealing way. Even the place Shivaay goes for thinking looks real spooky and stunning. But the problem here is the CGI. I know it is difficult to shoot in the actual mountains. But in the case of Shivaay there are too many set pieces on and off the mountains which looks crude on screen. Good visual effects are those where you wont know that it is done using computer. From the avalanche to Bulgarian car chase and fights, every set piece included in Shivaay looks shabby. The pace of the screenplay is so slow that you might occasionally forget the fact that it was supposed to be an action film. The screenplay as well as the making just cant really create the feel that Shivaay is this savior of many and that Saiyyesha Saighal love track looked awkward. You might not even remember the backdrop of the villain of the film. Music was nice from Mithoon and the Jasleen Royal song was beautiful.  Aseem Bajaj has tried to make it visually appealing, but the visual effects team and the stunt team couldn’t give it that perfection. BGM was unappealing.

Ajay Devgan performs the role of Shivaay in his typical style of showing attitude and shouting emotionally. Erika Kaar as Olga was nice. Sayyesha Saighal in her debut in Hindi was just okay. May be because all the dialogues where too dramatic that I felt the most impressive performance in the movie was off Abigail Eames as Gaura. She had no dialogues and yet managed to convince the emotional state of the character beautifully. Vir Das is there delivering lines which he wrote (I am sure!). Girish Karnad and Saurabh Shukla are also there in brief roles.

Shivaay just isn’t exhilarating with its making. With content like that, the only thing that would have made Shivaay more appealing was its making. But the tempo is too slow and the length is too much.

Rating: 2/5