Ciemme Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and Filmy Tadka Productions’ Shree is a science fiction film about time travel. Shreedhar Upadhyay alias Shree (Hussain Kuwajerwala) is a simple man living in Bombay. He loves Sona (Anjali Patil), a middle-class Maharashtrian girl, whose mother (Varsha Dandale) won’t let her get married to Shree till he buys a house. Shree works for a company called Air Calling. One day, his boss, Jayraj Randhawa (Rio Kapadia), calls him over to meet him alongwith four others – Prof. Krishnakant Desai (Raj Arjun), commissioner of police A.K. Raina (Paritosh Sand), and his (Randhawa’s) assistants, Tilak (K.C. Shankar) and Sheena Jaiswal (Shivani Tanksale). They ask for just 12 hours of Shree’s time for which Randhawa is willing to pay him lakhs of rupees. However, they don’t reveal what they need his time for. They also forbid him from telling anybody about the scheme.
Since the lure of big money is too tempting, Shree accepts the offer. He is given a spiked drink on the appointed day and made to jump from a height. He wakes up hours later and finds only Tilak with him. Unable to assess where Randhawa, the commissioner of police and the professor are gone, Shree senses that something is very fishy and he escapes from Tilak’s clutches.
Shree is soon shocked to learn that the police is after him for the murder of the professor and the police commissioner. Even while he is on the run, with girlfriend Sonu and friend Rajiv (Jitendra Vashishth) helping him, he encounters another Shree. It then dawns upon Shree that he was used as a guinea pig for an experiment by Prof. Desai. That experiment had failed on eight earlier persons and he was the ninth and last option. Because of his typical time of birth, he was a suitable candidate for travelling into the future and ‘seeing’ what the coming time had in store. Shree had successfully travelled in time and had foreseen the deaths of the professor, police commissioner and Tilak.
Shree now wants to save the three people but Jayraj Randhawa makes him an even more alluring offer – to work for him so that he could become the richest man by making Shree foresee the rates of shares and stocks before investing in them. By the by, Shree realises that Sheena and Tilak want him to kill Jayraj Randhawa and work for them.
What happens thereafter? Is Shree able to save Prof. Desai, police commissioner Raina and Tilak? Why is he arrested by police inspector Ganpat (Paresh Ganatra)? Does Shree kill Jayraj Randhawa? What happens to Tilak and Sheena? Does Shree live happily ever after with Sonu?
Rajesh Bachchani’s script is too ambitious and rather unpalatable. First and foremost, a story like this one should have been made with big stars to make it believable. The whole concept of time travel is so unbelievable that big stars were needed to make it acceptable. In the given case, the audience is not able to truly comprehend the track of time travel, which effectively means, almost the entire drama. Therefore, even though the viewer can follow what’s going on, the believability factor is so low that he is unable to digest and enjoy the drama. Prof. Desai’s explanation about the time break is just not understood by the viewers, after which he feels disconnected from the drama unfolding on the screen. The track of two Shrees is even more confusing. For almost the first 45 minutes of the running time, the viewers are not even told about what the experiment is, adding to their irritation. Once the experiment is explained, it is its implausibility which prevents the viewer from enjoying it. In effect, Rajesh Bachchani may have succeeded in penning a complex screenplay in a simple manner but its simplicity is just one plus point. He has not succeeded in making the drama believable. And because the audience is unable to have faith in the proceedings, the film becomes unintentionally funny at places. Dialogues, written by Bachchani, are okay.
Hussain Kuwajerwala makes a fair debut on the big screen in a role which was meant for a big star with a huge fan following. Anjali Patil doesn’t look like a heroine but she performs very ably. K.C. Shankar is very ordinary in the role of Tilak. His chaste Hindi irritates more than entertaining. Rio Kapadia is okay as Jayraj Randhawa. Paritosh Sand gets limited scope in the role of police commissioner A.K. Raina. As Prof. Krishnakant Desai, Raj Arjun is alright. Shivani Tanksale is earnest in the role of Sheena. Paresh Ganatra makes his presence felt. Jitendra Vashishth fits the bill as Rajiv. Varsha Dandale shines as Sonu’s mother. As the tea boy, master Kaushik Kinjawdekar is brilliantly natural in a brief role. Others provide ordinary support.
Rajesh Bachchani’s direction is okay but since the plot is so unbelievable and, if one may say so, childish, his narration fails to create an impact. Visual effects and computer graphics needed to have been far, far superior. Music is functional, at best. The ‘Piya mora’ song (music by Talaash Band -The Band of Seekers) is okay. ‘Phat gayi’ (by Claver Menezes) has a little appeal for front-benchers only. Rajesh Bachchani’s lyrics are okay. Harshal’s choreography is ordinary. Vikaas Vishwakarma’s background music is ordinary. Camerawork, by Subhransu Das (Chintu), is commonplace. Sets (Jinal Belani) are nothing to shout about. Noor Memon’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Shree is an ambitious project made in a shoestring budget and will go almost unnoticed at the box-office because of absence of star value in a subject which needed it. Flop!
Released on 26-4-’13 at Inox (daily 1 show), Metro Big (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Dar Film Distributors. Publicity: okay. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.