Sherni - 2021

Story

SHERNI is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region. Aastha Tiku's story is impressive but screenplay is bland and stretched. The initial portions are interesting but after a point, the proceedings seem repetitive. And the climax is the biggest downer. Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishra's dialogues are simple and sharp. Amit Masurkar's direction is average. Vidya Balan as expected gets into the skin of her character and delivers yet another commendable performance. Sharat Saxena is too good as a passionate hunter. Vijay Raaz doesn't raise laughs for a change and yet, he's very impressive. Neeraj Kabi (Nangia) has a great screen presence. Mukul Chadda is decent while Brijendra Kala is dependable. Bandish Projekt's music is poor. Benedict Taylor and Naren Chandavarkar's background score is minimal and impactful. Rakesh Haridas's cinematography is splendid. Devika Dave's production design is straight out of life. Manoshi Nath, Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Rajurkar's costumes are non-glamorous, in sync with the demand of the script. Futureworks and The Cirqus' VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger. Dipika Kalra's editing is not up to the mark. On the whole, SHERNI rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balan's performance. But the slow and documentary-style narrative, longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact.