Nowadays the Pan-India trend is going on in the market. Each and every film wants to be a Pan-India film but not every film can be Baahubali, KGF, Pushpa, RRR or Kantara. The story of Shaakuntalam is definitely of Pan-India level but the film isn’t. The iconic story of Shakuntala has been adapted many times in the form of television serials, stage plays and films right from 1920 to 2023. Gunasekhar decided to make this story in 2023 with Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Dev Mohan. The story of Shakuntala is a timeless classic and can be worked in any given time but for that you need a powerful presentation. The story of Shakuntala is a powerful story of feminism but the treatment given to the character and film is so bad. It seems like the film is made for small kids and the presentation is so outdated and childish. The film is full of mediocre moments and gives you a feeling of watching a TV serial. A TV serial is enjoyed because you get to see daily an episode of 30 mins or sometime 1 hour out of that you have advertisements but can you imagine watching a TV serial for whole 142 mins and that too without a break? Shaakuntalam is so unbearable and so stretched. Sometimes I hate my job so much that I have to watch these shitty crap just for the sake of reviewing it.
Indian History is so rich and there are many epic stories which can be turned into a beautiful film. There have been many good periodic films made in Indian Cinema but Shaakuntalam has to be one of the worst periodic films to come out of the Indian Cinema. If you want to spoil our history by making such crap then please stop. Makers have made a joke of Pan-India by making such craps. We recently saw craps like Kabzaa, Dasara, August 16 1947 and Shaakuntalam is the latest entrant to the club. And please stop writing such cheap dialogues in Hindi.
When Shakuntala (Samantha Ruth Prabhu), daughter of mage Vishwamitra (Jisshu Sengupta) and nymph Meneka (Madhoo), meets King Dushyant (Dev Mohan), the two fall in love and get married. They have a child, but Dushyant forgets all about Shakuntala due to a sage’s curse, until destiny brings them together again.
To play the role of Shakuntala a good looking actress was needed and Samantha Ruth Prabhu fits in the part, but what about acting. She looks like Shakuntala but doesn’t act like her. Whenever she speaks a dialogue it is in a cold manner and doesn’t create an impact. Whenever she opens her mouth to speak something you will scratch your heads because the portrayal is so bad. The iconic character of Shakuntala is completely ruined. This has to be one of the worst portrayals by any actress essaying the part of a queen from the periodic era. The dialogue delivered by Samantha doesn’t make you emotional but will make you cry for sure by watching Samantha destroying such an iconic character. Dev Mohan as King Dushyanth is terribly casted. He doesn’t look like one nor acts like one. His style, dialogue delivery, body physics, performance doesn’t even match 1% of King Dushyanth. King Dushyanth forgets everything in reality because of the curse and here Mr. Dev Mohan forgets how to act. Dushyanth and Shakuntala would never ever have imagined that their epic story would have been destroyed like this. Supporting cast includes popular actors like Sachin Khedekar, Gautami, Madhoo, Prakash Raj, Kabir Bedi and Jisshu Sengupta are totally wasted and the director is to be blamed here for presenting them in such a bad manner. The rest of the cast is very bad. Allu Arha (daughter of Allu Arjun) is seen portraying the role of Prince Bharata (son of Dushyanth and Shakuntala) and is the only person who acts and will make you fall in love with the performance.
Gunasekhar should leave directing films and should start directing TV serials, advertisements and cartoon shows. Such a terrible and outdated style of film-making has been used by him. The film should’ve been emotionally powerful but due to his terrible presentation nothing creates an impact. Each and every department of the films fails miserably like the dialogues, the performances, the editing, the writing, the screenplay, etc. The visual effects are so terrible and childish that even a cartoon show with a low budget looks better than this. I can go on and on bashing this crap but here there is a limitation of words. The music is so bad that even advertisements have better music than this one. The music spoils the narrative and increases the torture level for the audience.
This film needed to be directly streamed on Cartoon Network or Pogo instead of being released in theaters. I would like to request the makers to dump this piece of shit to have its digital premiere on Cartoon Network or Pogo instead of any OTT platform. The film seems so long, boring and stretched that the ones who don’t watch TV serials will select watching TV serials instead of watching this crap. Shaakuntalam is an epic torture which tests your patience to the highest level. Thank god Kalidasa is not alive to see this piece of shit. Shaakuntalam is a dangerous curse to Indian Cinema. This film needs to be skipped at any cost. Makers of Shaakuntalam have followed everything like forgetting what they are making, cursing the whole Indian Cinema and torturing the audience by testing their patience. Indian Cinema please don’t curse us with anything like this.
Rating – 1.5/5*
