Shamitabh (2015)

An aspiring actor with the inability to speak, joins forces with a man who has a powerful voice. Together they take the film industry by storm, but will their egos get in the way?

Director:

R. Balki

Writer:

R. Balki

Stars:

Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush, Akshara Haasan

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Amitabh Bachchan	...	Amitabh Sinha / Shamitabh
Dhanush	...	Daanish / Shamitabh
Akshara Haasan	...	Akshara Pandey
Abhinaya
Pete Meads	...	Police Officer
Rukmini Vijayakumar
Shubham
Pratik
Sonamani
Rajeev
Ajay Jadhav
Asif Ali Beg
Ivan Rodrigues	...	Anay Verma
Uday Tikekar
Pradeep Kuckreja

Storyline

The film revolves around a very unique plot, where it shows two different individuals having different talents and when they become ONE, the mixture measures up to be a very big hit in the industry. But in the meantime, EGO comes in the way and prepares to shatter the bond into pieces. Dhanush is a mute aspiring actor from a small village but with great acting talents. Amitabh has a very impactful voice. Both, on their own, can not achieve any greatness in the film industry. But with a help of a third party (Aksara Hassan), when they come together, the talents combined, make a complete new Artist. Dhanush becomes the actor onscreen and Amitabh becomes his Voice. But after reaching the peak of success, Both the leads start to become miserable to the question of having more importance in the unique cocktail. An unstoppable fight of ego comes in action And the clash drifts them apart, destroying every greatness they achieved and every possible milestones they could build together.

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Plot Keywords:

voice | mute | actor | assistant director | star | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dhanush's second Hindi language film after Ranjhanaa (2013).

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Goofs

Amitabh's sidekick (the cemetery helper/undertaker) does not sign the nondisclosure agreement and still listens to the deal shared by Akshara-Danish and Amitabh.

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Connections

References Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992)

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Soundtracks

Lifebuoy
Produced by Ilaiyaraaja
Written by Swanand Kirkire
Performed by Suraj Jagan

User Reviews

Nice experiment.

Shamitabh review :

Two things I have understood about writer -director R.Balki after watching Shamitabh: One, his stories are novel, interesting and intelligent at concept level. Second, the guy's in love with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. After exploring his romantic side in 'Cheeni Kum' (2007) and extracting an extraordinary performance from him in "Paa" (2009), Balki celebrates the superstars baritone voice in his latest venture. Yes, Bachchan's voice is the centre point of Shamitabh's plot where everything else only acts as a filler.

Balki utilizes the idea of a mute actor (Dhanush) "borrowing" the voice of a loser alcoholic (Big B) to become a Bollywood star pretty well, infusing it with fair amount of fun and drama. He also references real life cinema lore by making his actor start out as a bus conductor (emulating a certain Southern Superstar's reality) and bringing in Rekha for a hilarious cameo at an awards function. But after a breezy first half , the plot loses focus intermittently in the second half as the drama arising out of ego clash between the lead characters appears monotonously stretched. In short, Balki's script, inspite of its uniqueness, has its share of visible glitches...

The technical aspects don't disappoint except for the editing which should have been far more crisper and not let the running time of movie over extend to 150 odd minutes. On the positive, music maestro Illaiya Raja's tunes are catchy, especially the title track.

Balki has a formidable cast of two National award winning actors and expectedly both, Amitabh Bachchan and Dhanush deliver. Bachchan's character demands excessively verbose and loud performance but he pulls it off brilliantly. Dhanush has the more difficult role of trying to emote through his co-stars voice and he handles it with effortless ease. Note his frustration at an initial rejection by a director. Simply outstanding. Akshara Haasan makes her presence felt even in midst of two powerhouse actors. Quite an achievement for a debutant!

Overall, I recommend Shamitabh for its acting and concept even though it may leave you a tad exhausted at the end. Try it!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

6 February 2015 (India)

Also Known As:

Шамитабх

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$241,720, 8 February 2015

Gross USA:

$324,597

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$331,821

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hope Productions, Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (A.B.C.L.)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

155 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1