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Starts out like a Tollywood’s GO homage, talking about “To every incident there are three angles – 1. People’s Perception 2. Actual Story and 3. Witness Version," the voice over on black screen transition, and dialogue that isn't as interesting as what is in a decent Tarantino flick, though I have no doubt it's a reference to the bag from Pulp Fiction.
As with any multi narrative prospective structured film like this, the way to tackle is through each chapter, so here we go. A happy go lucky guy Shaurya (Manchu Manoj) falls head over heels for Netra (Regina Cassandra). In a short time, they start liking each other and pen to runaway to United Kingdom. That’s when Netra gets attacked and Shaurya decides to uncover the mystery behind the murder attempt on her. From the moment he starts realizing that something went wrong. He is unable to understand the angry stares, evasive responses of the village. That’s when Shourya surprises everyone by accepting Netra’s murder. What happened between Shourya and Netra? Why did Shourya kill Netra? How Krishna Prasad (Prakash Raaj) solve this mysterious murder case forms the rest of the storyline seeing the angles of 1. Manchu Manoj 2. Regina Cassandra and 3. Naagineedu Family.
The performances in the film aren’t promising though Manoj in the title role showcases his softer side. He once again fails to showcase his another side, but as usual excels in the lighter scenes demanding decent ease and timing. Ragina Cassandra just fits the bill in looks quotient though not with her acting credentials. Both Manoj and Regina seem to have absolutely no clue about the gravity of the situation or the film. Manchu Manoj looks damn too odd for this character. Prakash Raaj is convincing as an investigative cop. Naagineedu, Subbaraju, Nandu, Shravan, Satya Prakash are fine in their regular modes. Brahmanandam and Prabhas Seenu failed to tickle the funny bone.
The idea of Shourya is like Gouravam meets Go meets Groove, but it wasn’t executed as it should have been in multi prospective view. Even though writers (Hari – Gopi Mohan – Kishore Gopu) thrown in different plot points, it completely missed the mark by a large margin. The problem with Shourya is that there aren’t enough vantage points. There’s just a little too many scenes repeating themselves. If they could have shot more material from these three point of views, then it would have been more interesting.
Much of the film is told from straight point of view, although once the movie is about 1/3 finished, it drops the various points for a more straight forward narrative making one wonder why it used the 3 point narrative conceit in the first place. This is especially true, because it never really does anything interesting with the honor killing idea in multi perspective view.
It also wastes our time with certain things, most notably a story involving Nagineedu's character, which is completely unnecessary for the film. Once we do get into the main plot of the murder plot on Netra, we find that their plot doesn't make a lot of sense. We're also confronted with characters who take uninteresting actions, which would have undoubtedly been more startling had we known anything in depth about these characters.
There is something to be said about the non-linearly linear structure of the film that almost puts you to sleep. The whole intention of the strategy was perhaps to get your interests up and slide, but here is a typical instance when it backfires. When those scenes start making a slipshod reappearance you could either sit back and shut your eyes, or commence pulling out your hair strands one at a time. This is by far worst movie of Dasrath’s career.
Which is why in reality every effort of the film maker to induce some heavy headed involution into this unfussy yarn, further contributes to its untying. I certainly have no intention to talk about the suspense that drives the film forward not because of a spoiler alert, but simply because I'd rather not think about it anymore. The true brilliant part of the movie is its preclimax point, while the down point of the movie is the first half and climax portions which are clinched and too melodramatic. The cinematography by Malhar Bhatt Joshi has almost succeed to make movie look an above average effort.
The movie has plenty of loopholes than one cannot elaborate on a couple of pages. On screen, most of the characters mumble out the dialogues as if they are busy for something else. Shakalakka Shankar in the movie appear surprisingly dumb, while each and every character have a plastic make over with none having the meat to remain our hearts. Not a single scene arouse our interest and it is indeed more than a torture to remain in the halls till the final frame where the director tries to do the last rites of an insipid storytelling and illogical movie ride. The Vedha’s background score goes with the movie’s flow and his songs are also okay. Editing by S R Sekkhar leaves a few unexplained sequences. Production Values of Malkapuram Shivakumar are decent.
The doohickey is the best thing about this film, and they completely failed use it to their advantage, unknotting the mystery a little at a time is not promisingly done. Even most of the characters aren’t even given much personality or back story, which is unfortunate, for a multi perspective film. Shourya is an ambitious, frustrating mess of a film, which intends to take – Murder mystery – and explore it through perspective of 3 angles: Manchu Manoj, Regina and Naagineedu Family. All in all, “Shourya” becomes an exercise in survival rather than an enjoyment.
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