iSMART SHANKAR

iSmart Shankar is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language science fiction action film written and directed by Puri Jagannadh, produced by Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur with music composed by Mani Sharma. It stars Ram Pothineni, Nabha Natesh, Nidhhi Agerwal, Satyadev Kancharana, and Puneet Issar. The film follows a contract killer who helps the police when a slain police officer's memories are transferred to his brain.

PLOT

Shankar is a contract killer who works under Kaka. Under Mama's orders, he murders a high-profile politician named Kasi Viswanath. Vishwanath's son Devendra and his brother in law Ramamoorthy swear revenge on Shankar. The film opens with Shankar escaping from jail while being chased by the police. He beats up the police and escapes in a truck where he recollects the past.

While extorting money from an apartment builder, he encounters Chandni, who is a fearless girl and even goes to the extent of slapping Shankar. He gets impressed by this and falls for her. After a few altercations, she reciprocates. Once Shankar murders Kasi Vishwanath on Kaka's orders, he escapes to Goa with Chandni.

However, the police find out his location and track him down. While escaping, Chandni is shot and killed. Shankar is beside himself with grief and swears to kill the person who killed her.

In a parallel storyline, Sara is a neuroscientist who is working on memory transfer and has achieved successful results with rats. Her boyfriend, Arun is a CBI officer who is trying to crack the case of the murder of Kasi Vishwanath. He believes there is a higher force that planned and killed him.

Shankar finds out that Kaka was ordered to kill him as well and murders Kaka when he plans to escape in Sarah's car. He flees while Sarah calls Arun. Arun catches a guy running but the guy is killed when a car hits him. Arun's higher-ups are after him to find the killer and while Arun is about to crack the case, he is shot and killed by goons. The CBI is desperate to know who the murderer is, so with Sarah's help, they transfer Arun's memory to Shankar, knowing full well doing so will remove his past.

Shankar wakes up and experiences shocks and memories that aren't his own. He gets enraged when Sarah reveals the truth to him and realizes that he will not remember Chandni in a few days. He experiences brief flashes where he becomes Arun but reverts to being Shankar.

He finds Arun's house and discovers a bag that has all the proof who the murderer is, who turns out to be Ramamoorthy and Devendra. Shankar then fully looses his memory becoming Arun. He then pursues them under the guise of Shankar and in the end, however, Arun suddenly reverts back to Shankar and he finds out that Devendra is the one who killed Chandini and he kills him. The film ends with Arun and Sarah going to Hong Kong and proposing marriage to Sarah on Feb 14th, like Arun had planned with Sarah.

REVIEW

I love the movie and the action. Ram Pothineni however gives Shankar his all, bringing in a kind of energy that makes it a delight to watch him on-screen, even at his most-disgusting self. He especially comes through when the film requires him to showcase massy dance steps in horribly ill-placed songs. He also breezes through the very few emotional scenes in the film and the numerous comic ones. Satya Dev’s character never gets a chance to flesh out much, remaining a caricature of what an agent is supposed to be like. Shame, seeing as how well he can act! Nabha Natesh and Nidhhi Agerwal’s characters too suffer from a similar syndrome where despite much being made of their professions; they only serve the purpose of being the perfect misogynistic male-fantasy. Nabha however delivers an earnest performance with what she’s offered. Nidhhi is plain okay.