* out of 5

Movie: Shivani [2008]
Starring: Suraj, Shivani, Komal, Avinash and Shobaraj
Music: Jamesh Sakaleshpur
Lyrics: Kannada Shivu, Kaviraj, Hrudaya Shiva, Harish Shrunga
Director: Vishal Raj
Producer: NL Giridhar, KS Shivshanka

Shivani................. -Review

Shivani suffers from a poor script and even poorer narrative. And the performance too is a let down.

Veteran artists like Avinash, Vanitha Vasu and Mico Nagraj seem to simply walk in and out of scene without leaving any impressions. Director Vishaal Raj lacks perspective about the way he wants to tell the story. What you see on screen is a hotchpotch of many sequences seen elsewhere and influenced by recent successful films.

The lead artistes render a below average performance resulting in some good scenes losing impact. But for the comic relief provided by Komal and an item number by Jhansi , there are no wows for the audiences in Shivani. Even the punch lines have been heard many times before.

Viji(Suraj) and Shivani(Shivani) stay in the same residential colony and are thick friends. Viji is in love with Shivani but is unable to express it. Shivani harbours no such feelings but she finds extremely difficult to pass a day without seeing him. In time, Shivani is to be engaged to a rich man's son. Meanwhile Viji's brother Dharma crosses swords with an underworld don who has made several attempts to kill him. Knowing rest of the story depends on your patience. While the first half exhausts the viewer, the latter part brings mercy with a few interesting sequences before it too begins to make you yawn. Suraj need a lot of improving. His expressions remain the same in happy or tragic scenes. Shivani makes do. Less needs to be said about the songs as that's when many among the audiences move out of their seats. The camera work scores better.