‘Shiva 143’ Kannada movie review: Dheeren Ramkumar’s love vs. lust drama falls flat

Indian cinema has stepped out of its comfort zone, but when it comes to the launch of star kids, actors don’t want to take risks with their offspring’s career and prefer safe and proven storylines; in this case, a remake.

This is how we meet Dheeren Ramkumar, the latest scion from Dr. Rajkumar’s family who makes his debut with  Shiva 143, directed by Anil Kumar. This romantic action-thriller is an official remake of the 2018 Telugu blockbuster  RX 100, which had Kartikeya Gummakonda in the lead role.

Had the director taken enough care in scripting the film with some sensible narration, he could have saved Shiva 143 from becoming an angry young man’s generic love story. Remaking a hit film is definitely a difficult task, but a little bit of hard work, understanding the core content, and drawing a clear line between love and lust could have made this flick watchable.

Set in a small village of Karnataka, the story revolves around life of Shiva (Dheeren) a rustic, fierce and angry young man, who loses his parents in an accident and is brought up by the village leader. Being volatile and unstable is his natural character.

Anil Kumar opts for a flashback technique to present the softer side to Shiva’s story, who falls for Madhu (Manvita Kamath), a city-bred girl and  daughter of the wealthy politician (Panchayat member) and village head Avinash. While Madhu is more attracted to the toned body of Shiva and takes advantage of him, the young man sees a divine love in Madhu (like a routine hero, he gets her name tattooed on his chest). Will their romance end in a happily-ever-after?

This simple, straightforward story could have been communicated in a crisp and fast manner, despite the need to project Dheeren as a macho character. Anil Kumar should have understood that, instead of intentionally making the plot complex by infusing unnecessary violent sequences to confuse the audience.

The makers earlier planned to title the film  Daari Tappida Maga, as a tribute to Dr Rajkumar’s 1975 classic blockbuster. However, they finally decided against it after stiff opposition from every section of the society. Probably a good decision!

Dheeren Ramkumar makes every possible attempt to present Shiva’s inconsistent character as tolerable and appealing, but he has to learn a lot about acting, especially in scenes pertaining to intense emotions. Only fighting and action skills will not help his cause. For Manvitha (of Kendasampige and Tagaru fame), Madhu’s role is a walk in the park, and she handles the complex character with ease. Actors such as Avinash and Charanraj as usual fit their bill, but the director completely fails in making the best use of Chikkanna’s character. Also, casting Sadhu Kokila just to offer a comedy touch has no meaning at all!

To summarise, Shiva 143 has plenty of glamorous scenes, tears, and lots of blood and violence, but the essence of the film is lost somewhere in the enthusiasm of makers to please disappointed lovers of the current generation, who blame women for all their problems with love.

Shiva 143 is currently running in theatres