Shankar Telugu Movie
The movie Shankar heralds the arrival of Madhu as a film director in a quiet way. There is not much of publicity for this movie, which is primarily aimed for B and C centers. Both the hero and the heroine are very little talked about, though not completely unheard of. So there is no star factor to lure people irrespective of the quality of the movie.
Shankar speaks of the talent of the director Madhu who has made the movie with a very sensible portrayal of the police department and the criminal-police nexus. This does not mean that its perfect, there are many illogical things creeping up here and there. But over all the absurdities have been kept to the minimum.
Shankar (Shashikant) is an absolutely corrupt police officer. He knows that his honesty and sincerity isn't going to yield any results in a city controlled my mafias. He also knows that neither he nor his mother, who is a collector, can bring down two criminal heavyweights of the city they live in. So he even becomes a bootlicker of Gowd (Rahul Dev), one of the two criminal heavyweights and covers crimes committed by him.
But there is a plan behind all this. Shankar wants to take revenge when the time comes and bears all the injustice done to him and his family. He joins hands with the criminals to study their weaknesses and strengths and exacts revenge ultimately.
The abrupt and impact less ending as well as the lack of strength in the depiction of the rivalry between the two main villains bring the quality of the movie down. And the setting of the movie in Hyderabad looks illogical, as these sort of things happen in Bihar. So it's difficult to digest the theory that a crime can be committed in the house of the collector and go unpunished.
Otherwise director Madhu deserves all the praise for doing a good job that includes shooting the song sequences in Rajasthan and Kashmir. A real oasis in the middle of a desert is soothing to the eyes. The plot is good. The use of tact in the movie instead of taking the mafias head on, is an indication that Madhu is a step closer to making sensible movies that can convince the viewers about the plot. Shashikant is good in the acting department.
Overall, Shankar is an average movie holding a promise for better movies from director Madhu in the future.
