Shanti Shanti Shanti

Shanti Shanti Shanti is a 1998 Kannada language romantic comedy Drama film directed by Srinivas. The film starred Abbas, Madhavan, Prakash Raj, Prema, Avni Vasa, and Satish Shah in leading roles. During production, the film became known for its series of innovative ideas for the Kannada film industry, by becoming the first film to have a website and a six-track DTS sound. The film, which featured cinematography from P. C. Sriram, released on 20 November 1998.^[1] This marks the debut of R Madhavan in Indian cinema, as his previous film was an English film.

After the success of Madhavan's Alaipayuthey, the film was dubbed into the Tamil language as Relax to cash in on his newfound following.^[2]

Cast[]

• Abbas as Raju
• Madhavan as Siddhartha
• Prakash Raj as Ganga Prasad
• Satish Shah as Anantha Murthy
• Prema as Suzy
• Sumithra as Raju's aunt
• Sudha Belawadi as Bank Manager
• Avni as Shanthi

Production[]

The director of the film, T. B. Srinivas, an estwhile assistant director to Mani Ratnam, collaborated with former state cricketer Sanjay Desai, a distributor and theatre-owner, to produce a film on the youngsters of Bangalore and the idea soon started the film. Srinivas claimed he was inspired by two incidents — the kidnapping of a rich businessman by young thugs from Uttar Pradesh who were attracted by Bangalore's reputation as a fast-growing city with rich men and relaxed cops and the case of four city girls running away for a week with a man who promised to help them fulfill their ambitions — in order to write the story.^[3]

The film became the first Kannada film for prominent cinematographer P. C. Sreeram whilst noted composer Sandeep Chowta was the music director. The film was notable for becoming the first Kannada language film to have a website for the film. The move happened on the initiative of the director, T. B. Srinivas, although the practice failed to set a trend in the industry.^[4]

Soundtrack[]

The Music Was Composed By Sandeep Chowta.

Kannada

All lyrics are written by K. Kalyan.

Tamil

All lyrics are written by Vaali.

Release and reception[]

Upon release, the film became a financial failure for the producers. However, after the success of Mani Ratnam's Alaipayuthey (2000) in which this film's supporting actor Madhavan, played the lead role, producers opted to dub the film into Tamil as Relax.^[5] The Tamil version featured songs from Alaipayuthey in Madhavan's scenes.^[6] Actress Avni was given the stagename of Harini for the Tamil version, while composer Sandeep became Swaraj.^[7] Both lead actors threatened legal action, with Madhavan unhappy that a film in which he portrayed a supporting role would hamper his career in Tamil films, whilst Abbas was unhappy that the promoters were ignoring him. He also threatened action claiming that the producers owed him money.^[8][9]

Critical reception[]

Srikanth Srinivasa of Deccan Herald felt the film was a "clean, entertaing [sic]" one. Of the acting performances, he wrote, "Abbas is endearing. Avni is attractive. Prema is pretty and Madhavan is peppy. The casting of Satish Shah is unjustified. Prakash Rai outshines all the artistes with his natural performance as a rustic dhaba owner resembling Laloo Prasad Yadav." While he also commended the cinematography, music and playback singing in the film, he felt the film faltered on dubbing and editing, in that "the second half could have been trimmed."^[10]

References[]

External links[]

• Shanti Shanti Shanti at Jointscene