Reported By:
| Edited By: Aniruddha Guha |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
Film: Shabri
Director: Lalit Marathe
Cast: Isha Koppikar, Raj Arjun, Pradeep Rawant & Zakir Hussain
Rating: ***
Shabri starts off superbly. The police, while rounding up boys at a basti, pick up a teenager for questioning. A well-shot torture scene (that makes your hair stand on end) later, the guy is found dead. His sister barges into the house of the cop-in-charge, takes his revolver and shoots him dead in front of his wife and kids.
Shabri is a Ram Gopal Varma production that has been ready for a while. This may actually work in its favour. Close on the heels of an overdose of Ramu-inspired gangster films a few years ago, Shabri may have been lost in the crowd. But while Ramu himself is busy figuring out the inverted camera angle in his films now, director Lalit Marathe gives you a taste of something different.
In fact, Shabri is completely Marathe’s film, pluses and minuses included. Marathe keeps the setting grim, the background effective without being overpowering, and extracts some good performances from his cast. Sadly, the story lags a bit as the film progresses.
In the title role, Isha Koppikar is believable. Along with her close friend (the very natural Raj Arjun), Shabri wages war against the police and a gangster (played by Pradeep Rawat). While the first half keeps you hooked, Shabri’s rise to power in the film’s final moments isn’t as gripping, probably because the resolution is a tad bit rushed. Also, you expect the introduction of a wisecrack cop (Zakir Hussain) to the drama to bring a major twist in the plot, but the character does little than say some smart lines.
Simple as Shabri is, director Marathe makes the film a gritty watch that keeps you fairly engaged. At around 95 minutes, that’s not so bad.
