Shaakuntalam

Need to research before portray the story. In movie, Shankuntla's friends were talking about Ramayana's characters but it happened much later.

In Ramayana as brahamrishi Viswamitra shared his past experiences with Shri Ram and Laxman ji that sensuality misguide male and can keep away from deeds by giving example of Menaka and his relationship. Menaka was the mother of Shakuntla and Vishwamitra was her father. Rishi after achieving the degree of Brahamrishi, invited for a meeting in devlok by Indra and Vashishtha. Later it was decided Vishwamitra will take test of king Harishchandra who was the greatest follower of truth. Between Harishchandra and lord Rama there is huge generation gap. King Dushyant was contemporary of Chanchu (3-4 generations next to King Harishchandra)

So this story is chronologically defective with many more respect.

Samantha is biggest drawback to this movie. Not much expressions and no glamour, her weak expressions leads to feel weakness to audiences. Dev Mohan is ok but not familiar face to Telugu audience another minus. Songs and BGM not apt truly speaking worst. It's a known story but director should show some intensity no elevations. No importance for few characters and poor graphics. Like Srinu Vaitla, it's better to stop makings films by Guna Shekar. Loosing all his reputation. It's time for Dil Raju to stop experiments. Better save money and invest on low budget movies like Balagam. Entire movie no scene creates impact to us.

I went to watch the movie with high expectations but the poor Execution of the movie didn't keep me tied up in the cinema hall. The story of Shakuntala, which I heard from my grandmother as a child, replaced the story I thought was very different, the graphics of the film were less, the film does not seem to be shot in the jungle from any angle. No one will believes that this movie came from South Industry where we have seen Bahubali, RRR, KGF etc movie which are very prominent VFX. Sorry to say, but Samantha for the character of Shakuntala is not a good choice. This movie is not for her. Thank you.

King and hero of the film has not put enough efforts in his acting, he seems in n out from the character very often. VFX, props, artifacts are at its worst level, not convincing enough. As a audience you can find plenty of mistakes in props selections. Even villains of the story are funnily seems like actors from school drama. You can watch it once with less expectations. If you are already having high expectations then I'll suggest don't waste your time and do not spoil the very well known story of shankutala and King Dushyanth. That's from my side but as I need to add atleast 600 words I'm trying to met that condition.

Gunashekar brings on screen the tale of Abhignyana Shakuntalam and completely fails in doing justice. He is bogged down by his own outdated narrative. While narrating a known story, there should be a tad bit of freshness to it at the very least which was completely missing here like the non-existing chemistry between Samantha and Dev Mohan. The only believable character turned out to be Durvasa Muni played by Mohan Babu.

The narrative is poor and slow paced along with the tacky visuals, the film simply tests the patience of the viewers who might even find the dialect bit too hard to digest. This adaptation would work only if the audience buy into the premise and connect to the characters. The songs were forgettable. The introduction of the villains and the final battle simply prolonged the story. The VFX was simply that below par.

As far as the performances go, Samantha as Shakuntala and Dev Mohan as Dushyant have tried to be as earnest as they can but they simply don't fit these characters to make their love story believable or even have any impact. The supporting cast especially the ones like Shiva Balaji used for comic relief, went over the top. I am harsh but even if I try to be lenient, there isn't a single thing in this film that stands out.