Shabari Movie Review:
Shabari has a clever central idea. It borrows familiar names from the Ramayana and flips their roles. Here, Rama is not a righteous man; he cares only about an old jeep, which he names ‘Arjuna'. Sita is not abducted by an outsider; her real tragedy is marrying a man who uses her like a bargaining chip. And Shabari brings no sweet fruit of devotion; she is an innocent, lost child who forces Rama to pay for his past sins.
Director: Orata Shri
Cast: Samarth Ramesh, Kruthika Gowda, and Baby Dhanvi
The film tries to pack in everything: poverty, family struggles, an unhealthy personal obsession, action blocks, and an unexpected child-kidnapping drama. But with so many themes tossed together, the film loses its grip, struggling to balance its core idea with regular commercial movie tropes.
The film starts with real emotions. A humble Ayurvedic therapist treats a wealthy man’s bad leg and asks for just one gift in return: a jeep for his young boy. The vehicle arrives, but hard times follow soon; he loses both parents, and extreme poverty forces the boy to lose the jeep. The pain turns into a lifelong, bitter obsession: “What is ours must come back to us.”
When the story skips ahead and an adult Rama (Samarth Ramesh) enters, things take an interesting turn. Rama does not fight for family pride; he only wants the machine back. He targets Sita (Kruthika Gowda), the daughter of the man who took the jeep away. He follows her, talks sweetly, and eventually agrees to marry her, not out of love, but simply to lay hands on the jeep keys again.
This twisted take on the myth could have been powerful if director Orata Shri had stayed true to the character's flaws. Instead, Rama’s bad temper, heavy drinking, and cruelty at home are watered down with regular soap-opera drama. When Sita dies, Rama breaks down in guilt upon discovering that she had kept the jeep safe only out of love for him. Sadly, his sudden change of heart feels hurried rather than earned. Then comes a sharp change in direction in the second half.
Enter Shabari (Baby Dhanvi), a Hindi-speaking child running away from kidnappers. Unlike the old story where Shabari waits her whole life for Rama, this girl lands right in his lap uninvited. Rama tries multiple times to ditch her, but she keeps showing up at his door. The moral connection here is neat: a man who gave up his family and broke his wife’s heart for a machine must now surrender that very machine to save an innocent child. It is a satisfying emotional circle, finding peace by giving up the thing that ruined his life.
Yet, this is where the writing slips. Instead of letting the bond between the broken man and the young girl grow naturally, the screenplay rushes into ordinary ransom scenes, lucky coincidences, and messy editing. What should have been an emotional study of guilt turns into a plain chase-and-rescue film.
As for the performances, newcomer Samarth has made an earnest first attempt, holding up well in the action scenes, but he finds it challenging to show the cold, complicated side of Rama. Kruthika Gowda plays Sita with warmth and patience, doing her best with a sad role. Young Dhanvi is sweet, lively, and natural, bringing much-needed energy to the latter half.
Shabari deserves credit for a fresh concept, using classic names to show how dangerous material greed can be. But having a good concept is not enough. There is a touching film somewhere inside Shabari, but by trying to chase too many stories, it runs out of fuel before reaching the finish line. Still, it leaves behind a sober truth: chasing materialistic things will eventually lead you to a dead end, especially when true love and human bonds are tossed aside along the way.
