The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Gripping, but no shock value

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 11, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Gripping, but no shock value

ELECTRIFYING DUO: Ravi Teja and Jyotika in `Shock.'

Film name: Shock

Cast: Ravi Teja, Jyothika,

Tabu, Nagendra Babu and

Kota Srinivasa Rao

Producer: Ram Gopal Varma

Direction: Harish Shankar

Despite cinematic, the film `Shock' is shot well. In fact, it's an ordinary revenge drama and the Telugu audiences had the taste of such movies -- `Criminal' and `Manoharam'.

The debutant director Harish Shankar narrates the subject well in the first half, while shows slackness in the second half while opting for some action sequences.

Chandrasekhar alias Sekhar (Ravi Teja) works for an ad agency. He loves Madhurima alias Madhu (Jyothika), who is his colleague and marries her against the wishes of her father (Vizag Prasad). But they live together happily. Madhu gets pregnant and as the lift in their apartment complex is always under repair, Sekhar decides to shift to a new place and meets an agent (Krishna Bhagawan). He shows a beautiful house. As Madhu has an appointment with the doctor, Sekhar takes the baggage to the new house and gets ready to unpack them. Enter Nagesh (Subbaraju) and Diwakar (Ravi Kale), policemen and notorious as encounter specialists.

Turning point

They receive some wrong information and shoot Shekhar in the shoulder believing him a naxal. To escape, they brand him as an extremist. The police arrest Sekhar and Madhu meets Dharma Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao), an advocate.

However, the greedy criminal lawyer succumbs to police pressure and implicates Sekhar in the case. Madhu keeps believing Dharma Reddy.

At this juncture, she meets Gita (Tabu), a journalist who guides Madhu to human rights activists and police officials.

Realising that they were getting into trouble, Nagesh and Diwakar kill Madhu and manage to prove is a suicide. Sekhar gets a `shock' on learning about his wife's death.

The remaining part deals with how Sekhar comes to know that it is not a suicide. Ravi Teja performs well. Jyothika makes her mark as a housewife, while Tabu does justice to her role. The screenplay that works wonders.

MOVIE MARKET

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail