Samantha Ruth Prabhu is exquisitely classic in Shaakuntalam. She holds the camera with her silences. Apte talks and talks in Mrs Undercover streaming from today on Zee5, without saying much. It is fortunate that this noisy serial-killer comedy (that’s what it presumably is, though it will take social analysts centuries to figure out what this undercover oddball is really about) has gone straight to the OTT.
In movie theatres Mrs Undercover would have as much a chance of survival as a frog in the well. It is amazing that such films with zero box office draw get dumped on the digital platform even now when so many radical changes have been introduced in the uneasy digital-cinema equation. Mrs Undercover ranks as an all-time low in the brief history of digital premieres.
Shaakuntalam is a hark back to the halcyon era of mythological filmmaking. But a lot more classy. The 2D version is spectacular in its own right. But the 3D version is an out-of-this-world experience. Every element in the storytelling conspires to give the age-old story a sensuous elegant spin.
It is time to reclaim our heritage. It is time to tell stories that every Indian child should know. Let’s stop the inflow of imported garbage to entertain our children. Show them that beyond Disney and Harry Potter there exists a wealth of indigenous stories waiting to be told. Rajamouli has opened the door. Gunasekhar’s Shaakuntalam walks through that door with confident steps.
Shaakuntalam is most likely to find its audience. Its unmistakable joy in celebrating the past is contagious. Incidentally Allu Arjun’s 6-year old daughter Arha makes her early acting debut as Samantha’s precocious son Bharat. The little scenestealer comes in pretty late in the narrative but brings the house down.
Shaakuntalam is a big boost to Samantha’s pan-India image. The Family Man proved her hold over the digital domain. Now it is time to acknowledge Samantha as the next big female superstar from the South after Sridevi.
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