Only the last half an hour of the movie is interesting (Shourya)

Director Dasarath  has come up with Shourya after a three-year gap. The    film stars Manchu Manoj and Regina Cassandra and keeping in mind the   director's previous work and the film's extensive promo- tions, the project received much buzz ahead of its release.

The story goes like this. Shourya (Manchu Manoj) is back in India from stud­ies at Harvard and settles down in a teaching job. Soon, he attends a wedding and there, he meets Nethra (Regina). The two immedi­ately hit it off.

But much to her, and everyone's, shock, Shourya escapes with the bride dur­ing the wedding.

Nethra, however, soon discovers the real reason behind why Shourya ran away with the bride and that reason is enough for her to fall in love with the guy who just took off with someone else's finance.

Later,    on Sivaratri Shourya and Net-hra visit the

Kotilingala Siva temple and decide to spend the night at the holy site. But late into the night, Nethra is attacked by unknown per­sons and her throat is slit. A severely injured Nethra is taken to hospi­tal and the police imme­diately arrest Shourya as he's the sole suspect in the case. So what really happened to Nethra that night forms the crux of the story. Director Dasarath is a sensible director, known for his romantic dramas. This time, he tries his hand in an entirely new genre, a thriller... with a touch of romance.

The movie starts off with an interesting premise —that a story can have three

different versions or per­spectives. One told from the imagination of people, the other from the perspec­tive of a person who has been involved in the inci­dent and finally, the actual facts behind the incident. It all sounds promising but the movie simply fails in its execution. The movie was marketed as a thriller but the narration is slow and even border-line bor­ing. Also, there are too many flashbacks and the screenplay is just painful. When it comes to perfor­mances, Manoj shines with his subtle portrayal of Shourya. But the film does­n't even explain why the actor had to put on weight for this project. But Manoj's acting is definitely one of the highlights of the film. Somehow, however, the chemistry between hint and Regina does not come through despite good performances. Regina, no doubt, looks stunning. Prakash Raj, once again, remains a hit, which has become something of a habit with hint. Brahman­andam's support with com­edy once again misfires and Prabhas Srinu man­ages to evoke a few laughs — but he too goes over­board at some instances. From a technical perspec­tive too, the film is not that great, with an equally-average soundtrack. Overall then, Shourya is a film that promises a good plot but falters due to its execution. Dasarath must be appreciated for diving into something new but he faltered in the other departments of filmmak­ing — especially the screenplay. There are no thrills in this film until the last half hour