Shadow Movie Review: The attempt is audacious but the film is a no show

One of the biggest factors that Shadow has going in its favour is the curiosity factor. After all, it's not everyday that the film's protagonist, in this case Nasser Khan, is a blind man. But while this could serve as a unique marketing factor for the movie, it is not enough to make the movie run. This is a movie which is likely to give you a feeling of d?j? vu. If you have grown up watching Hindi masala movies of the eighties, Shadow is likely to transport you back to that era. The film is dated, at least its treatment is. It's not a film of our times, definitely not something the multiplex audience will lap up. What one admires is the filmmaker's honesty. There is no attempt to mask or disguise the fact that the movie is only tailored around the persona of Nasser Khan and everything is designed to project him as a film star. That the man has courage and guts is admirable, but his acting abilities would hardly call for any kind of admiration. The film is self-indulgent to that extent and understandably, its writing is also geared for that one purpose. Hence, logic and reason go out of the window and the screenplay just goes merrily haywire.

The film's story is about one Arjun Sherwat (Nasser Khan), who is a much wanted criminal by the cops. The only hitch is that no one seems to have seen him or knows of his identity. Sanjana (Sonali Kulkarni), a lady cop has been handed over a serial murder case and is not g=making much headway with it. There are two reporters as well who are shadowing the case, Sheetal (Hrishita Bhatt) and Rahul (Milind Soman) both of who belong to rival TV channels. In the course of events, Sherawat is presumed to have dies in an accident. Even before people can heave a sigh of relief, till Sherwat relaeses an audio clip stating that he would kidnap a well known builder on a given date, in front of the cops and sure enough, he manages to do just that. The rest of the action about Sherawat unfolds in the rest of the film.

The film, which is directed by Rohit Nayyar, is fairly engrossing in the first half but by the time the director reaches the second half, there is absolute pandemonium. On top of everything, the director adds a romantric angle to the movie by including a romantic track between Sherawat and Sanjana, which just doesn't gell. Also, he is not able to sustain the pace of the film and build up a high voltage climax as was the wont of those eighties masala movies. But what does call for some amount of praise is some of the stunts. The film has been shot quite well and one cannot really complaint about the production values as such. The music, which has been composed by Anand Raj Anand is catchy and goes well with the genre. There is nothing tacky about the movie and the fight sequences and the stunts have been well choreographed. But individually, all these departments are unable to lift the movie because of its blatant promotion of one individual. That takes a toll on the quality of the screenplay.

Nasser Khan is no actor but makes a confident appearance. The other actors do a fairly good job, given the length of their roles. Sonali, Milind Soman. Sachin Khedekar and Vishwajeet Pradhan acquit themselves well. Hrishita has little do and hardly manages to create any impression.

In brief, the prospects of this film doing well in the metros look bleak. The curiosity factor is its biggest plus.