‘Shivaay’

Shivaay, an action thriller directed and produced by Ajay Devgn under his banner Ajay Devgn Films features himself, Sayyeshaa Saigal, and Erika Kaar in lead roles. Shivaay (Ajay Devgn) spends time guiding tourists on high altitude treks and in one such trek, Shivaay falls in love with Olga( Erika Kaar). 

Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to hold Olga back in India but right before leaving for her country, Olga finds out that she is pregnant. She does not want to have the child but all hail Shivaay’s persuasion, the child is born. After 8 years, their daughter Gaura (Abigail Eames) wants to see her mother. Shivaay decides to visit Bulgaria along with her daughter. Shivaay and Gaura reach the Indian Embassy in Bulgaria to look for Olga. They run into Anushka (Sayyesha Saigal) there, who, decides to help find Olga. The rest of the movie focuses on the couple’s daughter and Ajay’s mission to rescue her from a drug-trafficking mafia. ‘Shivaay’ has raised the standard of action sequences in Indian cinema. While Ajay has delivered a brilliant performance as Shivaay, an innocent Himalayan mountaineer who transforms into a mean destroyer to protect his family, Erica and Sayesha are natural and convincing. But it is Abigail Eames as Gaura, who is charming. She impresses you when she emotes with her speech disability. But it is sad to see talented actors like Vir Das and Saurabh Shukla wasted in sketchily written parts. Ajay Devgn throws in his lot with the film as both actor and director. On the directorial front, Ajay Devgn, has concentrated more on the technical brilliance than the emotional quotient. The excitement with a well-choreographed opening action sequence sees him doing bungee-jumping, gliding and parachuting. The gradual increase in loudness in the background makes him appear flamboyant, tough and intimidating, pushing the length of the film onto 173 minutes!  The one aspect Shivaay wins in is the locations and the way they have been captured on camera. Both, the Himalayas and Bulgaria have been captured in a breathtaking manner, the scale of the film is mesmerising as are the action and chase sequences. 

But good photography and stunts can do very little to help a badly-written film. From mafia to corrupt policemen, everything boils down to Devgn’s uncontrollable urge to raze each standing thing to the ground. When you think it’s about to touch a logical end, another twist comes into sight. The drama is unbearable and unintentionally funny. It is hard to even bear with the characters, let alone devote nearly three hours of time to them. Their performances keep dragging in search of an end. Mithoon’s music seamlessly integrates into the narrative. The songs are used to propel the story forward and the shlokas to lord Shiva are effectively used as the background score. This Ajay Devgn video game gets more unwatchable with each minute. ‘Shivaay’ treks through high altitudes, but does not reach anywhere.