Shivaay Movie Review: Devgn's Desi Tadka To 'Taken'

Way back in 2008, Liam Neeson had reinvented himself as an action hero with Taken, in which he played a former CIA agent on the rampage after his daughter gets kidnapped by a gang of traffickers.

Ajay Devgn took more or less the same one-liner, added some desi tadka to it and came up with Shivaay, a film which was also directed by him. However, while Taken was a kick-ass thriller, Shivaay comes across as a self-indulgent affair.

Shivaay (Devgn) is an intrepid mountaineer in the Himalayas, who is often spotted getting doped and sleeping shirtless on snow-capped mountains. When Shivaay meets Bulgarian beauty Olga (Erika Kaar) on a trek campaign and the two have a whirlwind affair, Olga gets pregnant and leaves daddy dearest holding the baby while she jets back to Bulgaria as she has different priorities.

The baby grows up to be a mute brat Gaura (Abigail Eames), who discovers that her mother is alive and insists on meeting her. Shivaay and Gaura land up in Bulgaria, where the daughter gets kidnapped by a child trafficking gang, compelling Shivaay to become a fugitive in order to rescue his princess and save the day.

Devgn, who is best at playing intense characters, is totally in his element this time around too and the intensity that he lends to his action scenes, makes watching them an enjoyable affair, especially with the Har Har song playing in the background. With his dark looks and his intense eyes, Devgn is the perfect actor to play a character based on the qualities of Lord Shiva.

However, the deadly Devgn sucks when it comes to romance and his scenes with Erika Kaar are unintentionally funny. We hope the director could have showed some finesse while writing the initial 30 minutes, which comprises Shivaay's love story. Erika is decent to look at but her insistence on talking in accented Hindi, even in letters, is quite laughable. Sayyeshaa Saigalshould have seriously chosen a better film to make her debut with as she hardly gets to do much in the film, apart from uttering unintentionally funny lines while Vir Das should avoid cameos where he is needed to overact. Finally, what is wrong with Girish Karnad!? The man, who is considered one of the finest actors we have today, is an utter disappointment in his role as a pious father.

As for the film itself, Shivaay has some beautiful locales to gawk at and it is an awesome feeling to watch those snow-capped mountains on the big screen. Another thing that Shivaayhas worth watching is slick action scenes and die-hard fans of Devgn will have a great time watching the film.

On the other hand, the film has fumbled the ball in terms of an emotional connect and logic. There is hardly any chemistry between Shivaay and Olga, which makes their love track seem quite contrived. Even Shivaay and Gaura's relation hardly touches you the way Bajrangi Bhaijaan did (Gaura's way of showing affection is by punching Shivaay solidly in the tummy) and the film lacks a supremely sinister villain, who could have made the battle between good and evil more fun to watch. There is absurdity galore too- in one scene, Olga is seen wearing denim cut-offs on a snow-capped mountain and in another scene, Shivaay and Olga, who are trapped in a tent hanging mid-air following an avalanche, seem more interested in making out than saving themselves.

Like mentioned earlier, Shivaay is a very self indulgent affair with Devgn standing tall in almost every frame of the film; if you are a Devgn fan, Shivaay will surely be a weekend treat, but if not, give this one a miss.