Movie Review: 'Shamitabh'

A confident village lad, Daanish (Dhanush) overwhelmingly crazy about movies, spends his childhood living in his fantasy of being an actor. However the nature has a condition with him that he could only be a mute actor which he has no problem with but the world at large wants otherwise. He is rejected by many but he gets lucky to be spotted by a wanna-be-director girl, Akshara. She even though looks down on him and often calls him Monkey, becomes a fan of his acting. She finds a way that a voice can be embedded into the dumb actor which can give his facial expressions and moving limbs some understandable meaning. The actor then chooses the voice of an old, shabby, serial whisky-drinker Amitabh Sinha (Bachchan), whose acting career wasn’t taken off due to rejections for his voice, and who spends his life in hangovers in the middle of a graveyard. With the help of technology the strengths of both the artists are put together and they rule the Box Office without letting out their secret. The villager becomes the talk of the town and gains enough fame to cause indigestion to his voice donor. They argue, fight, and abuse to prove that the other is less talented and often convey that by lowering the alphabets of other’s name parts used in Shamitabh, the pseudonym they make for their combined endeavour. Egos clash, both separate, and when wisdom strikes, join hands again. At this time of the movie, R Balki, the director, pitches in and makes his presence felt.

Both the leads exhibit power pack performance and is fun to watch before things begin to cross the fine line between adequate and over-the-top. The bits that delighted me the most are - the intensity of Daanish to be an actor, and music, which is a touch of a genius named Ilaiyaraaja. The movie celebrates the most popular and dearly loved baritone of Indian cinema and is certainly a good watch especially the concept is novel and a few directional touches truly deserve thumbs-up.