Shivaay (Shivay) movie review: Ajay Devgn's film is a desi version of Taken with stunning visuals, action

RATING: 3/5

The movie Shivaay, also spelled Shivay, is pretty high in terms of visuals and action sequences, with heavy dose of emotions related to a father-daughter relationship. Although it is Ajay Devgn's most ambitious project, the film reminds of Liam Neeson starrer Hollywood movie Taken to some extent.

Shivaay is a story about a father, whose eight-year-old daughter gets kidnapped by a human trafficking gang in Bulgaria, and how he almost single-handedly rescues the girl from the antagonists.

PLOT

Ajay (Shivaay) is a mountaineer, who most of the times remains high on marijuana. He meets Erika Kaar (Olga), a Bulgarian girl, while taking a team of tourists on the Himalayas for a tracking session. Cupid strikes the two and they fall in love. However, the love birds mutually decide to get separated as Ajay cannot shift to Bulgaria and Erika has a family to look after in her homeland.

Here comes the twist as Erika comes to know that she is pregnant a few days before her departure from India. This creates a rift in their relationship as Ajay wants to have the baby, but Erika feels it would appear as a burden on her when she already has a number of lives to support.

Ajay's repeated requests and emotional words convinces her to give birth to the child, following which she leaves for Bulgaria, giving Ajay the responsibility of the baby girl. Everything was smooth in Ajay and his daughter Abigail Eames's (Gaura) small world until the latter comes to know that her mother is not dead as told by Ajay and she insists on meeting Erika once.

Unable to see his daughter sad, Ajay takes her to Bulgaria and this is when all hell breaks loose on them. The small girl gets kidnapped by a human-trafficking gang and would be sold aboard within 72 hours. Meanwhile, Ajay gets arrested by Bulgarian police as they believe that the girl, who has a white skin, cannot be his daughter and it is he who sold the girl to the gang. This is one point that is hard to digest though.

Ajay, somehow, manages to escape from police and then sets out to trace his daughter. Sayyesha Saigal (Anushka) is a member of the Indian Embassy in Bulgaria, who first refuses to help Ajay, but eventually joins him and brings his hacker friend Vir Das (Wahab) also in the fight.

POSITIVES

Shivaay is very good in terms of action, emotion and cinematography. Ajay has incorporated some impressive action sequences in the film that will certainly raise the bar. The father-daughter bonding has also been shown very beautifully that is likely to touch many hearts.

PERFORMANCE

Ajay has nothing to prove now as far as his acting prowess is concerned. Debutantes Erika and Sayyeshaa have also done justice to their characters. Abigail Eames is pretty good in portraying the character of Ajay's mute daughter.

NEGATIVES

Directed by Ajay himself, Shivaay is definitely a much different movie as far as Bollywood is concerned, but like most other Hindi films, it also lacks logic at certain points. There is one scene a little before the climax when Ajay chases the antagonists in a car. Failing to chase them on the road, Ajay decides to take the aerial route, which is fine, but suddenly gets his mountaineering kit in the car as well. Logic?

While the plot of a father single-handedly fighting a gang of human-traffickers abroad seems much similar to Hollywood film Taken, it also is unnecessarily stretched in multiple scenes.

VERDICT

All in all, Shivaay is a good watch for all who love high-octane action, but the loopholes, which could have been easily avoided, might disappoint you a bit.