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Shree Movie Review
This is reviewer is, right now, one among a tired audience that has just put itself through the mind-numbing ordeal of watching Rajesh Bachchani’s sci-fi disaster, Shree. I choose to write this review in my current state because I fear that the labyrinth of a plot that makes up the movie is too much to retain for long, especially because of the unsystematic story-telling and myriad of confused sequences.
The movie is a tale about the nightmare that time-travelling puts Shree (Hussain Kuwajerwala) through. He is a simple lower middle class man caught in an accounting job that will not allow him to convince his girlfriend’s mother that her daughter’s future is secure with him. She has laid the condition that he must get an apartment of his own, one which has a kitchen and at least one room. For this Shree must cough up 20 lakh Rupees, an unattainable amount for him in his present job. In desperation he agrees to become subject for a science experiment.
Something about the experiment is fishy. Shree has no clue what it is about except that it requires 12 hours of his life. As soon as it begins, Shree realizes it was a mistake and makes a run for his life. On stepping out he finds his world gone berserk. The meek and anxious layman is being hunted and accused of killing at least 3 people, one of who happens to be the Commissioner of Mumbai Police! The initial impression we get is that an evil clone has been created of Shree which is responsible for the misdeeds and that it is his share of blame that is being laid upon the innocent Shree.
What ensues next is too bizarre to narrate and too dull to read. Suffice to say, the suspense is revealed in a series of haphazard flashbacks and narrations that make the rest of the movie near unbearable. The movie could have scored positive points if this unfolding had been interlaced with the plot which would have made it comprehensible and engaging for the viewer.
The mainstay of the movie, i.e. the experiment itself, is not clearly explained leaving the audience perplexed. The whole direction of the movie gives the feel of an amateur college project. While the background music is harsh and tacky, camera-work is slipshod.
The movie has ambition, I will concede this much. But as is usual for science fiction movies in India, the under-budgeting leaves no room for making the fiction credible.
The cast fails to impress hugely but doesn’t disappoint either. Hussain is convincing in the role and delivers what is asked of him. Anjali Patil, as the girlfriend, sees her character through too.
Overall, Shree is neither worth the buck nor the time. It leaves me feeling sorry for the crew which consists of a number of first-timers.
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