Apr 27 2017
Shivalinga
P.Vasu brought his film Apthamitra from Kannada to Tamil as Chandramukhi and delivered one of Tamil cinema’s and Rajnikanth’s biggest BO hits. He travels the same route with Shivalinga, a remake of the Kannada hit of the same name which also he directed. Raghava Lawrence lacks Rajni’s star power but more importantly, the film, a murder mystery dressed up as a horror-comedy, is insipid and derivative.
Rahim(Sakthi) is killed when he is pushed from a running train. The death is ruled a suicide but after his lover Sangeetha claims that there was no reason for him to kill himself, the case is assigned to CB-CID officer Shivalingeshwaran(Raghava Lawrence). There are just not enough suspects to make the murder mystery gripping or even interesting. The inter-religious romance, which the parents on both sides have reconciled to, is the only thing we learn about Rahim and Sangeetha and there’s not much there to raise interest. The lack of clues for Shiva to follow is an interesting aspect of the case but this just means that the investigation doesn’t make much progress as he takes steps(like measuring dimensions of a post at the murder spot) which look cool but eventually don’t amount to anything.
With such a weak murder mystery, the film turns to horror-comedy to fill in the gaps. Shiva weds Sathyabhama(Ritika Singh) and they move into a mansion, conveniently situated right next to a cemetery. All the horror movie cliches dutifully make their appearance as Sathyabhama becomes possessed. Ritika gets to splash on white paint and sport bad teeth as the spirit takes hold of her. Lawrence inhabiting his Kanchana persona of being scared of ghosts, Vadivelu as a thief who has taken up residence in the house and Urvasi as Shiva’s TV-cook mom take care of the comedy. The comedy again is hardly fresh and is mostly Vadivelu being scared of Sathya’s transformations.
The mystery finally picks up some pace as Shiva rounds up a bunch of people and gathers them in a room for the grand revelation. There are a few surprises in his story and it does build up to a nice surprise when one of them is unmasked. But inexplicably the story continues on to lead to another person and this is a damp squib. The reason behind the crime – awkwardly set up with an abrupt and unconnected sequence earlier – is silly and so this revelation ends up being anti-climactic.
13 responses so far
Haven’t seen this yet (and don’t want to after this and other negative reviews), but have you heard that P Vasu was actually planning to make a Hollywood film with Vijay in the lead? Look, I don’t want to underestimate our great Tamil talent, but of all people, how did P Vasu get the nerve to go west, when even Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan were hesitating?!
@Jordan
Its gonna be same case with KS Ravikumar who attempted Samy at Bolly, which backfired
Given Bell Ratnam’s recent track record (Ravanans, Kadals, OKK’s, KVelidais etc) I doubt he’d ever make to Holly
Here are a list of Tamil actors that are able to make it to Holly: Kamal, Vikram, Ajith
@Jordan, I don’t get it. Vasu has already “gone south” with his offerings. Why would he not be able to traverse west? Wouldn’t that also relieve us from the crap he produces?
Vijayan you think Ajith can go to hollywood, oh please!!! the only thing i hate the most about ajith and vijay movies are ajith and vijay. just hate their body language and facial expressions.
@Vijayan KSR too? Inga padam flop aana udanae straighta Hollywoodaa? Kamal and Vikram would be great, but I’m sorry, I don’t think so about Ajith. He does have the George Clooney looks as his fans say, but I’m finding his acting kinda monotone these days. He refuses to reinvent himself.
@Harish “Wouldn’t that also relieve us from the crap he produces?”. LOL!
talking about “migration”, I heard that Dhanush’s holly project has been scrapped since the director was changed or something…
@reza – double thumsup
@Prasad In Baradwaj Rangan’s interview, Dhanush said he’d start shooting for that Holly project from May. So, I guess its not scrapped.
Jordan is absolutely right. D-Man’s Hollywood film will happen in time! 😉
BTW, Murugadass madaiyana vida worst yaaravadhu migrate paNNa mudiyumaa yenna?! He goes to Bollywood all celebrated, makes a film with Akshay Kumar, which turns out to be a hit. What does he do? He protests Akshay’s Rustom National Award. Unakkenna vandhudhu? UnakkO indha jenmathula Akira-kku national award vara poradhillai.. perisa vaai kizhiya.. 😱
@Sandya LOL, Murugadoss got full seruppadi from Priyadarshan, where he said that when an Adoor Gopalakrishnan criticizes the choices its valid, but when a B-grade action masala dude (cough cough Mr.Kaththi/Ramana/Akira/Spyder) points fingers, its ridiculous. I didn’t like most of the choices of winners as well including Akshay, so I agree with Murugadoss, but this “paapa thalli poi vilayadu” speech doesn’t make him seem any better either.
Criticize paNNa qualification edhaavadu irukkanum! ARM surutified his Tamil-Hindi Ghajini script from Memento (he should be in court still for it!) and a heavily Shankar inspired follow up in Ramana. I’m still trying to figure out how the hell Thupaakki happened to him even. Like Lingusamy, he has plenty of junk from the gunk acid tank for his next film! The javvu ingredients are toxic and unbearable for the most part! 😥😫😖
Balaji, waiting for your Baahubali 2 review
Jordan, all our directors keep talking about Hollywood projects but nothing ever seems to come out of it. But have to say that a P.Vasu-Vijay project in Hollywood does seem to be the most far-fetched of all Hollywood talks I’ve ever heard
Vijayan, the Saamy remake happened a while back no? Haven’t heard any talk about KSR post-Lingaa. Wonder what he’s up to these days.
Prasad, same here. Haven’t heard anything about the project being dropped. But having started Vada Chennai, wonder when he’ll have the time to start the project.
Sandya/Jordan, yeah the National awards were a royal bust this time around. Akshay getting an award for Rustom(good movie but very ordinary performances) with Priyadarshan as the head does sound suspicious but ARM making comments about it konjam over.
Preethii, still haven’t watched it
Hopefully this coming weekend!