Ajay Devgn directs, produces and acts as Shivaay.
Honestly even though I love Ajay Devgn as an actor and have been a huge fan of his, there is nothing nice that I can say about his second and hopefully last directorial venture.
The film takes its own sweet time to build a non-existent plot. Devgn keeps throwing punch lines looking at the camera and walking in his now famous Rohit Shetty films slo-mo walk.
It is not that he has not put in effort, the problem is, as I had predicted, there is too much work that he has taken on himself, which is resulting in this disaster of a film. So Devgn fights, emotes, runs and jumps off treacherous terrains, but then in the end all seems an exercise in futility.
The film goes wrong in the scripting stage itself. Heavily borrowed from ‘Taken’, it’s just taken that film and extended it by an hour of silliness. By the time the plot or story starts moving in, you have lost connect with Devgn’s character, who in an attempt to be aloof on screen, shoos you off screen.
Some lovely cinematography here, must say. Devgn has got that right. The locales of the Himalayas as well as Bulgaria look breath taking.
The female leads are a hogwash. Unfortunately, even the daughter fails, resulting in Devgn having to over compensate in that department too, so that you can feel the bond and subsequent pain between father and daughter. Vir Das, Girish Karnad are wasted too.
The soundtrack is also listless, besides the Badshaah track, which keeps running the background, refreshingly.
My heart goes out for Ajay Devgn. He should stay away from direction.
RATING: 1/5
By: Yusuf Poonawala
