Girivalam - Review

(Picture adopted from Mohankumar's)

Girivalam is a very very faithful remake of Akshay Khanna - Bobby Deol - Amisha Patel "Humraaz", directed by Abbas-Mastan. And a very poor one. For those interested in its story: Shaam and Tanu Rai are newly married. Shaam is a aspiring leader of a small dance group who wants to make it big and quick. Richard is a young rich businessman who is looking for a dance group to perform in his ship's star cruise. Shaam kills a guy who is the rival dance group leader in order to get the star cruise contract.

Richard meets Tanu in the ship and falls for her.. He being rich and handsome, Tanu also slowly reciprocates her love (?). Shaam feels sad (!?) for that, but lets Tanu marry Richard. But, there is a hidden plot in this.. It is the plan contrived by Shaam that Tanu should divorce Richard and get a huge compensation. Shaam kills a troup member, Anamika, who gets to know the plan and gets away as with the first murder.

The multi-crore plan slowly starts back-firing when Tanu really starts falling in love (?) with Richard due to his kindness and care and Shaam is gettiing impatient. Richard gets to know all this and he decides to kill his wife for being untruthful.. From this part on, like in the hindi version, the story gets 'inspired' from "The Perfect Murder" and the climax is all messed up and gory.

Firstly, I was left wondering what made the director Shivraj ('Adithadi') to get inspired from a below-average "Humraaz". He must have got a bad hindi translator, since Akshay and Amisha are lovers, not married, in the hindi original (!). This is one movie where no-one gives an impressive performance. All the three lead roles in this movie act as amateurish as one can get.. and with no expressions whatsoever.. Shaam and Richard have good body and thats it.. Less said about Tanu and Anamika, the better.. They dance and roam around in skimpy clothes, which reminds you of 1980's movies.


The supporting cast of Charlie, Ramesh Khanna et al. do a poor job and technically too, there is nothing to write about. 'Isai Brahma' (?!?) Deva makes sure that there is nothing positive in this movie (songs in Hindi were hummable atleast). This move is worth skipping and, believe me, you wont regret it.

Grade: "C-" for unimpressive act and low production values.