SHIVAAY – Avalanched expectations!. Review on Shivaay

Ajay Devgn has maintained his reputation of gifting people and his fans with a blockbuster almost every Diwali(remember Golmaal series and Son of Sardar). The trailers of Shivaay has been more than promising where you see a guy scaling the slopes of Himalaya with his kid in the backpack. The mesmerizing scenes and action sequences made you wait eagerly for the film to release in theaters. Let me give you the little zig-zags to piece in the remaining parts not shown in the trailer. Just a little and then you can decide.

Shivaay(Ajay Devgn) is a fearless mountaineer named after Lord Shiva with a why? who loves and lives for climbing the treacherous slopes of Himalayas. He is shown as helping Indian army with their work and when he is not doing that, he a simple mountain guide that takes aspiring climbers to their destinations. One such group of mountaineers was being led by him and then he was struck by the beauty of a Polish girl Olga Paramski(Erika Kaar). Then nature’s catastrophe strikes and they are trying to escape from an avalanche. Suddenly a magical tent is their rescue that is hanging between the cliffs. The girl is injured and their lives are in danger. What should Shivaay do?

The obvious, actually, call for help or signal. But then he thought consummating their love was appropriate as who knows if they shall live to see another day. Olga and Shivaay are close now, loving each other, playing and enjoying colours of Holi. But their merriment comes to an end when Olga finds out she’s pregnant and decides that she doesn’t need that child right now. But Shivaay being himself, wants the kid. So, she leaves her baby with him and returns to Bulgaria.

The kid is born mute and she is named Gaura(Abigail Eames). She has a doting father and now she wants to meet her mother after eight years. For this Shivaay takes her to Bulgaria and tries to unite the mother and child. But things were going too much as planned(and quite predictable).

Gaura gets kidnapped by human trafficking group who sells and pushes girls into prostitution(Taken, was it?) This is just too much to handle and Shivaay opens his mythical third eye and you can sense that he is going to be a one-man army all over the place. He meets Anoushka(Sayyessha Saigal) who works for Indian Embassy in Bulgaria for helping him finding his daughter and is utterly in love with him. She is there only to witness while he breaks the bones and look at him with adoration in her eyes. And the story ends the way you are thinking right now. I didn’t say it.

Ajay Devgn as a director, for the second time, has not been able to leave his comfort zone. He is still in that Singham mode with slo-mo walks, slit eyes, blank face expression and, scything arms and legs. All grim, unsmiling visage no humour and vulnerability that we have seen before in his best parts.

The reason behind watching is the movie was VFX and action sequences. We, definitely, showed Hollywood that we can also do car chases, overturn the vehicles, make the country policemen feel complex when our hero knows more about from where the gang coordinates and bring our daughter back. VFX is simply okay, except few places. But action sequences are what needs to be lured about.

This movie couldn’t have been more, muchhhh more. If you get what I mean. Abigail Eames is the only character that you feel for and relate properly. She is not made to speak Hindi with a weird accent, unlike Olga(Thank God!) but she does it perfectly with her actions and expressions. Vir Das is a hacker that brings trifle of comic relief, while Saurabh Shukla is a corpulent diplomat who delivers lectures on virtues of being a Bihari(try cracking why this happens).

Shivaay is a monumental 172-minutes loooongg movie with too much of empty time to wonder. The scenic beauty is beautifully captured which makes you feel that money was worth after all. I was expecting, maybe, more from this movie because it could have been. Did you see the trailers?

If you are an Ajay Devgn fan so you will, definitely, watch it. But if you are not then please catch some other movie. Shivaay is the weakest Diwali gift by Ajay Devgn, a story that could have climbed and scaled the mountain but eventually avalanched due to the routine story with no glory.