Sugeeth in his latest film ’Shikari Shambhu’ seems to have taken to the belief that a tiger hard-pressed into a story that is as old as cinema itself could make all the difference. It gets caught somewhere between a comic book and a thriller, ending up neither.
Sugeeth in his latest film ’Shikari Shambhu’ seems to have taken to the belief that a tiger hard-pressed into a story that is as old as cinema itself could make all the difference. It gets caught somewhere between a comic book and a thriller, ending up neither.
Kuruthimalakkavu is where all the action takes place, a small hamlet where a tiger has wreaked havoc on the lives of its inhabitants. Peeli (Kuchacko Boban) and his friends Achu and Shaji (Vishnu Unnikrishnan and Hareesh Kanaran) on hearing the news, decide to give it a shot, and reach the village under the guise of tiger hunters. Little do the naive villagers realize that the vagrant trio has got their eyes fixed somewhere else; at the village temple to be precise, where a much prized treasure awaits.
An in-depth analysis is not something that ‘Shikari Shambhu’ merits, nor anticipates, and the kind of dead beat track that it adopts to steer itself forward hardly offers you any opportunities for the same. This is a script that is infested with chestnuts galore, and unpredictability certainly isn’t its strong point.
If you are looking for some humour and nothing else, there are those bits and pieces of laughter that the film offers, thanks to Najeem Koya’s dialogues. But if you ask me if these are enough to let you survive the entire running time of the film, I’d have to admit I have my apprehensions.
It has come to a point when one has to be real careful when crafting a man eater movie, which is in all probability why the makers of ‘Shikari Shambhu’ decide to layer it up with an underlying tale that unfortunately turns out to be cheesy to the core. This lack of allure with regard to its core material is what transforms ‘Shikari Shambhu’ into a no-show of sorts.
It’s unfortunate that Sugeeth has never been really able to follow up the distinct mark that he had managed to leave behind with his debut film ‘Ordinary’. ‘Shikari Shambhu’ should serve as a mere addition to his filmography and hardly anything else, and with the kind of inventive films that are being dished out by the dozen these days, would hardly stay in competition.
It’s back to square one for Kunchacko Boban with ‘Shikari Shambhu’ and the actor walks through a role tailor made for him for the umpteenth time. Hareesh Kanaran emerges the live saver, with his characteristic humour and witty rejoinders. The rest of the cast that comprises of Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Sshivada, Maniyanpillai Raju, Krishna Kumar and Sadiq, just to mention a few, passes muster.
Cinematographer Faisal Ali should be lauded for all the greenery that he scoops up with his camera and serves us in abundance. Thanks to him, ‘Shikari Shambhu’ strikes you as easy on the eyes, while Sreejith Edavana comes up with a couple of hummable tunes.
‘Shikari Shambhu’ is the kind of film that makes you feel sorry for the tiger than anyone else. At least the rest of them are in the film out of choice, but from the looks of it, the poor creature certainly isn’t!
Verdict: Run-of-the-mill Comedy