Spoilers ahead…
Samantha has a lovely, fragile screen presence, but oddly, Shakuntala seems to register the least in this story. This is such a meek protagonist.
Gunasekhar’s Shaakuntalam, based on the Kalidasa play, has been marketed as #MythologyFor Millennials. So as a thought experiment, let’s drag this classic to the modern day. A beautiful woman falls for a handsome dude. He makes vows of marriage, they have sex, and he says he’ll be back for her. She pines for him, but he has a bout of amnesia and forgets her – until he remembers her again. They live happily ever after. On the surface, this is a story you are going to laugh off, but what made it work was the literary form, the poetic richness in Kalidasa’s writing. So to crack this on screen, you need a cinematic vision, something like what V Shantaram had when he made this story into Stree, in the 1960s. (He made an earlier version, too, but I have not seen it.) You need to expand a thin, borderline-ridiculous tale into a spectacle that fills the eyes and also the heart and mind.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/telugu/movie/review/shaakuntalam/
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.
Satya
April 14, 2023
Gunasekhar was and is working on Hiranyakashipu next. The thought of it makes me shudder now. And Bhansali’s Shaakunthalam? I would rather watch his retelling of Ramayana’s Uttara Kanda, that portion of the epic that made Rama replace Ravana as the baddie by the millennials. 🙂
LikeLike
Jayram
April 14, 2023
Satya, I think I’m the only one who thinks Gunasekhar’s best work was Bala Ramayanam despite its shitty graphics. I don’t like Okkadu or any other film he’s done.
The only thing that stopped me from calling Rudhramadevi mediocre was the presence of Nithya Menen. She elevated every scene she was in. And like KayKay, I wish she and Anushka did the dirty ;).
LikeLike
hari prasad
April 14, 2023
Had Rudramadevi been bankrolled by Netflix , we could have got that கண்கொள்ளா காட்சி.
LikeLike
Rohit Sathish Nair
April 14, 2023
“…A beautiful woman falls for a handsome dude. He makes vows of marriage, they have sex, and he says he’ll be back for her. She pines for him, but he has a bout of amnesia and forgets her – until he remembers her again. They live happily ever after…”
Change a few things and you get NNM, change a few other things and you get NKPK
(I know, plots don’t matter beyond a point, but still this was fun)
LikeLike
Satya
April 14, 2023
Jayram: I too longed for it, only to realise I was actually happy that Bhallaladeva got lucky this time at least by being a proper gentleman. For me, Rudhramadevi was lovely only when Nithya Menen and Allu Arjun were onscreen. The latter as Gona Ganna Reddy made me wish a film was made with him as the lead.
LikeLike
Aman Basha
April 14, 2023
So me and my folks are not the only ones who wanted some more action in Rudhramadevi between Anushka and Nithya, and I don’t mean the snake eagle gibberish Gunasekhar put in the end 🙂 Would have motivated Ilaiyaraaja to work on the tunes than snooze through the whole thing.
Bala Ramayanam better than Okkadu? When did Nandamuri fan association start infiltrating this blog? 🙂 Although I’d like to see a expansion on this.
Incidentally, I think NTR’s Seetarama Kalyanam is the best Ramayana version on screen. Amazing that NTR was a debutant director and managed to deliver such a strong Raavana at the same time.
LikeLike
Jayram
April 14, 2023
@hari prasad, if it ever happens, I hope you get the call to direct it. Maybe you can have a song with lyrics by Thamarai if you know what I mean ;).
@Satya, Allu Arjun as Gona Ganna Reddy is the only performance of his I like. I remember watching a pirated copy of Rudhramadevi where the audience howled whenever he was onscreen. Simultaneously, there were people who were having onanistic reactions whenever Anushka or her younger avatar disrobed or were being disrobed. I was ROTFLMAO at the audience’s reactions whenever those scenes came on if you know what I mean ;).
@all who desired to see Anushka and Nithya go at it:
LikeLike
hari prasad
April 14, 2023
“Anal Mele Panithuli “?!?
No , I’m not ready to earn the wrath of Mr. Baddy for ruining one of his favorite Tamil songs!
LikeLike
Aman Basha
April 14, 2023
Dheerga Sumangali Bhava 🙂
Poor Pranushka fans (and I say this as a former member). Get Prabhas hitched and he will come out of the funk he’s been in lately. Day by day, I’m turning into my grandmother hmm.
LikeLike
vsrini
April 16, 2023
@hari prasad:
‘Anal Mele Panithuli’ sounds like KayKay’s browser history
LikeLike