Shambhala Movie Review

It’s been so many years since Aadi Saikumar, delivered a successful film. Apart from his three to four films, during the initial part of his career, none of his other sixteen to seventeen films were successful. At a time in his career where he has to score a hit film to stay relevant, he teamed up with the two-film-old director, Ugandhar Muni, for a Supernatural Horror Thriller film, Shambhala. Sricharan Pakala was roped in to compose music for the film. After generating enough curiosity with the trailer and promotional campaign, the film was released in theatres today. Did, Aadi Saikumar, finally score a successful film at the box office? Did the director, Ugandhar Muni, deliver his first commercial success? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Vikram (Aadi Saikumar), a geoscientist and an atheist, goes to a remote village to test and analyse a meteor that fell from space. Shortly after the meteor hit the fields in the village, the villagers start to observe strange happenings, and a few of them start behaving strangely and eventually ended up killing themselves in the most violent ways. What challenges did Vikram, an atheist face with the superstitious villagers? What is the reason for the strange behaviour of a few of the villagers? Why is the village, ‘Shambala – The place of peace’, turning violent after being hit by a meteor? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Aadi Saikumar in the role of Vikram, did a good job at most of the places and appeared confident as always but at times, he looked a bit out of place. Archana Iyerr got a role to showcase her acting skills in the second half of the film and she did a decent job. Madhunandan got a crucial role, and he made full use of it by portraying varied emotions with utmost ease.

Ravi Varma did a decent job with a terrifying role. Senior actress, Annapoornamma, made her experience count in a substantial role. Harshavardha and Praveen appeared in a couple of sequences each and both of them made their presence felt. The child artist who played the role of a young girl suffering from autism, did a good job with her performance.

Technicalities:

Sricharan Pakala’s background score would have been better. The score more often than not sounded very loud. A song during the initial prologues to introduce six of the crucial characters, is one of the highlights of the film. The lyrics in the song were so apt in describing the traits of each of the six characters.

Praveen K. Bangarri’s cinematography is good. The visuals during the night portions were captured very well. Shravan Katikaneni’s editing would have been much better, particularly in the first half. At least ten minutes of duration would have been easily edited in the first half. It looked like, due to the budget constraints, the entire backstory of the ‘Shambala’ village was told using animated and AI-generated visuals. A bit more budget and effort to enhance the quality of the visuals, would have made the film, a better watch.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Good Storyline
2.⁠ ⁠Initial Twenty Minutes
3.⁠ ⁠Few Thrilling Moments In Second Half
4.⁠ ⁠Using A Song to introduce Characters

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Convenient Screenplay
2.⁠ ⁠Repetitive Sequences In The First Half
3.⁠ ⁠Loud Background Score
4.⁠ ⁠A Few Illogical Episodes

Analysis:

Usually, the directors who make movies with the concept of ‘Science Vs God & Belief’, prefer to go with either of the following two approaches. One is pro-science where the filmmakers give logical & scientifically proven explanations without overtly hurting the sentiments of people. And, the second one is pro-God where we get to see the filmmakers rely on the belief/saying ‘Sivuni Agnya Lenidhe Cheema Aina Kuttadu’, to drive the film. As long as the film is executed well with an interesting story and an intriguing screenplay, both approaches work out well with the audience. For ‘Shambala’, the director chose to go with the pro-God approach. He chose the concept of six arishadvargas(i.e. six enemies of the mind) – kama (Desire/Lust), krodha (Anger), lobha (Greed), mada(Ego), moha (Attachment), and matsarya (Jealousy) and blended it with ‘Science Vs God & Belief’ setup along with an interesting mythological story as the backdrop. Without a doubt, the director scored first-class marks with the storyline and the backdrop. But, does the interesting story idea and backdrop, translate into an engaging movie? The answer is, partly ‘yes’ and partly ‘no’.

The film started on a very interesting note with Saikumar’s voiceover where he explains the backstory of the village ‘Shambhala’. The proceedings during the initial twenty minutes of the film raised enough curiosity and were largely engaging. Especially, the idea of introducing six characters with each of six arishadvargas, through a song, during the initial part of the film worked out very well. After the initial twenty minutes, the film gets into the monotonous zone with multiple repetitive sequences up until the interval. Particularly, the pre-interval sequence dragged out forever and it tests the patience, after a point. The dialogues during the confrontation between the lead character and the villagers about ‘Science Vs Shastram’, were pretty standard. We have seen and heard those dialogues and arguments in multiple films in the past. Also, the drama around the meteor, appeared too convenient and illogical, in the first half. Does the Geoscientist department of any country, send only one scientist to test and analyse a very important, meteor, that fell on Earth? Better care should have been taken while writing scenes involving the reasons to send Vikram(Aadi Saikumar), to test and analyse the meteor.

After losing the track for a major part in the first half, the film got back on track in the second half where the lead character turns into a god believer from an atheist. The backstory of the ‘Shambhala’ village, an interesting twist, a very engaging sequence in front of the temple and the racy screenplay involving the last four arishadvargas, worked out well in favour of the film.. ‘Manalo Chedu Lekapothe, Ah Bhutham Manalni Em Cheyyaledu. Ikkada Jayinchalsindi Bhuthanni Kadu, Mana Manasuni’ – the director used this dialogue to reveal the actual core point of the film, in the second half and the entire screenplay was written to convey the point was good.

Overall, a very interesting storyline, good initial twenty minutes and some interesting screenplay in the second half, made ‘Shambhala’, a decent watch. However, better care should have been taken in editing a few dragged-out and repetitive portions in the first half. Shambhala is a much better film compared to all other films of Aadi Saikumar in the last few years and it has a good chance to do reasonably well at the box office. You may give it a try watching in theatres this festive season.

Final Verdict – Good Concept. Mid Execution

Rating – 2.5/5