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Shikhar
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'Shikhar' A Letdown

By Aparajita Ghosh
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

Six years after giving an intelligently made movie in his directorial debut Sarfarosh, director John M. Matthan returns with Shikhar. Sorry to say, ‘Shikhar’ comes nowhere close to Matthan’s first movie in terms of story telling and execution.

No two opinions, ‘Shikhar’ is a movie made with good intention. It takes the issues of deforestation and land-acquisition by greedy builders who want to make high-rises and residential complexes with the sole motive of making big bucks and without even the scantest regard for environment and ecology.

It

is an issue very relevant to the present times. But the way it is brought forth in the story of ‘Shikhar’ and the lethargic pace at which the story unspools, and then drags in the second half, is what makes ‘Shikhar’ an average, if not less, movie. Add to this the overtly deliberate attempts by the director to chip in some glamour quotient in this otherwise arty film. The end result is a mis-match of art and commerce.

The story of ‘Shikhar’ stems from conflict of two ideologies. On one hand is Gaurav Gupta aka GG (Ajay Devgan), an avaricious, ambitious businessman who puts money above everything in his life. He has a dream of making a city and he would manipulate people and relationships just to make the chips fall in place to realize his dream.

On the other hand is Guruji (Javed Sheikh), a businessman-turned-social activist who runs a charitable organization that houses orphans and promotes eco-friendly culture. Guruji’s motto is to use money for social and environmental good.

Caught in between these two ideologies is Guruji’s son Jaidev (Shahid Kapur), a young man who gets lured by lucre, liquor and ladies.

GG takes Jaidev under his wing and the young man goes on to become the boss of a multi-crore company. Jaidev enters a new world of riches, leaving behind his childhood sweetheart Madhavi (Amrita Rao).

In the meantime, GG uses Natasha (Bipasha Basu), a sexy siren, to entice a politician. GG’s idea is to take over the land of the tribals for his dream city. But before the worst could happen, GG stands exposed and Jaidev sees the right way of life.

Shikhar begins quite emphatically. The proceedings in the first half are quite engaging while Ajay and Shahid’s characters are being established.

But the story thereon keeps veering into subplots and uncalled-for songs.

The second half of the movie sees Shahid’s character coming out from Ajay’s shadow, turning into a drunkard and then leaving the riches for slums. The story then becomes too predictable. The conclusion to the story is more idealistic than real.

Ajay Devgan fits well into his role, although his styling (by Anna Singh) is a bit overdone. The script reserves the best lines for Ajay’s character and the actor delivers them with conviction.

Shahid Kapur is competent in his role of a character who transforms from a simple guy into a rich man indulging in wine and women. He, however, falls short of exuding the maturity his character ought to have had in the second half.

Amrita Rao’s character could have been better etched. She plays a salwar-kameez clad, simple girl who nurses her beau from an accident despite the fact that he left her in his selfishness.

Javed Sheikh is just about OK. Bipasha Basu adds glamour to the movie and also gets to show her histrionics in few sequences.

All in all, ‘Shikhar’ is a well-intended, but poorly made movie. It neither strikes you with its realism nor it entertains.

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