Govinda as a killer on the run
DIRECTOR N Chandra, for a change, has come up with a thriller in Kavita Pictures’ Shikari. Unfortunately, the director in Chandra falls prey to the story inspired by a South Indian hit. The contrived storyline with far too many twists only adds to the confusion in the narrative. To make matters worse, he takes too many cinematic liberties, and the story abounds with rather absurd, implausible situations.

But the director deserves to be praised on the effective chracterisation, and on extracting commendable performances from the cast. Govinda’s character of an pychophatic killer obsessed with Tabu has been excellently etched, though it does go against the grain of his current image. How well the audience takes to the change of image remains to be seen.
The film also falls victim to the rather poor pre-release publicity, that may well affect its performance at the b-o.

Om Srivastav (Govinda) a simpleton, becomes a killer owing to some strange circumstances. He escapes from prison and slips out of the country in an altogether different guise, even foxing the cops. He lands up in Cape Town (South Africa) posing as big businessman Mahendra Pratap Singhania. He doesn’t even frown on losing 20 lakh rand one night at a casino. He is projected as a man who considers women as commodities. He manages to make inroads into the business interests of masala king Vijender Rawal (Nirmal Pandey). This fosters enmity between them and Rawal gets killed by Singhania during a hunting expedition in the jungle.

The police concludes it as an accident but Raji (Karisma Kapoor) doesn’t agree. She too works overtime to nail the killer. Now Singhania suddenly changes guises again and becomes Om. Raji develops a soft corner for Om for his concern for the family. The next victim of Singhania is bar girl Sanya (Shweta Menon) who has clues to the killing of Rawal. She is killed by Singhania, who has her drowned in a pool. Raji, though a silent spectator to the incident, is unable to identify the killer. Arjun Singh (Kiran Kumar) the cop from Mumbai who also happens to be the uncle of Raji lands up in Cape Town to settle the financial disputes of the Rawal family. When he spots Singhania at a party, it becomes obvious that he too will be bumped off. After his elimination, the real Om unravels his Cape Town Mission. He is in love with Raji’s sister-in-law Pooja (Tabu), but she was married off to Vijender against her wishes. He even tries to kill Raji so that he can elope with his lost love. But she survives the attempt and in the lengthy climax, the tangled web of the story is resolved.

It’s an altogether different Govinda we see in the film and his portrayal of the serial killer is excellent, though inconsistent. But it appears he put no extra effort into the role, jittery as he was about its impact on the audience. It’s Karisma and Tabu who have dominated the film with some inspired performances, despite the script providing them very little. Karisma, in particular, is very impressive with her fiery dialogue delivery and towards the end when reality dawns on her aboout the intention of the killer. Johny Lever and Razzak Khan has been let loose by the director and they provide many lighter moments. Nirmal Pandey does a fair job and his performance is a treat to watch.

Director N Chandra may seen be left wondering what went wrong with the film. The fault lies in the screenplay, as too many turns cause jerks and hamper the flow of the story. Until half time, it is never explained why the main character behaves in a peculiar manner. Chandra ought to have provided some clues in the beginning, so as to hold audience interest. There is hardly any suspense in the storyline. But full marks to Chandra on extracting commendable performances from Govinda, and playing around with his image. Music by Aadesh Shrivastav is hardly of any interest beyond Bahut khoobsurat ghazal. The production values are excellent, though one bemoans the fact that valuable money has been wasted on a venture such as this. Cinematography by WB Rao is good, though his aerial shots are too jerky. Kamlesh Pandey’s dialogue is memorable.


Padmaraj Nair

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