Everyone in Shaakuntalam cavorts. From very CGI tigers, deers and peacocks to scantily-clad women and kings who take a sudden break from war activities. Jungle Book-like lush green forests — teeming with animals who take living in harmony even beyond the I Just Can’t Wait To Be King song from The Lion King (I might have seen it wrong, given how dark the CG glasses made it, but were there tigers sitting atop elephants?!) — form the backdrop to the age-old tale of the cursed love between Shakuntala and Dushyant, retold here by director Gunasekhar.

There isn’t anything more to the film because the plot — based on the story of Shakuntala from the Mahabharata and later dramatised by Kalidasa — remains unchanged. Shakuntala, played by Samantha Ruth Prabhu, is the daughter of Vishwamitra and Menaka (Madhoo), who leaves her behind to be brought up by Maharishi Kanav (Sachin Khedekar) in his ashram. King Dushyant (Dev Mohan) chances upon her in the forest, gets butterflies (they actually had thousands of butterflies swarming them as they met), and falls in love at first sight.

Dushyant is a man of action; he is introduced in the film hunting tigers and hyenas that look suspiciously like wolves, and taming a rampaging elephant. He quickly (quick being the operative word) woos Shakuntala, proclaims themselves married — according to Gandharva custom, two people can be married consensually without witnesses — and immediately beds her. Then, because he is a man of action, he goes about his kingdom’s business, leaving Shakuntala with the promise of coming back to take her and make her queen.

Now, Shakunatala is definitely not a woman of action. She gets assailed by butterflies and has to be rescued by Dushyant. She feels ‘tan ki taap’ (I snorted my cold drink out of my nose at that figure of speech for attraction / lust) but needs her friends to tell her how she can deal with it. Then she sits around and waits for Dushyant even after she realises she is pregnant (Dushyant really is a man of action). While she is lost in thought about her beloved, she ignores Maharishi Durvasa (Mohan Babu) who curses her that she would be forgotten by the one she is lost in thought of. How she wins back her love makes up the rest of the story, and it is as ridden with terrible screenplay, ridiculous Sanskritised dialogues and cartoonish battle sequences as the first half.

The acting is nothing to write home about. Could Samantha and Dev have saved the film? Sure, had they been given something to work with. Dev tries hard but all Samantha does is wear one expression that can only be described as confused sadness, whether she is romancing her loved one, missing her loved one, on a voyage to meet her loved one or being rejected by her loved one. And yes, everything Shakuntala does is in connection to her loved one.

The rest of the cast, despite being big names like Mohan Babu, Prakash Raj, Madhoo, Sachin Khedekar and even Jisshu Sengupta (who appears as Lord Indra), are wasted in characters who are never fleshed out or built up, making them just stepping stones to move from one plot point to another.

There are two things that stand out in Shaakuntalam. First is the animated sketches that tell the stories of things that have happened in the past. They are incredibly well done. Second is Allu Arjun’s daughter Arha, who comes a little too late in the film to be a saving grace but still steals the show as Shakuntala and Dushyant’s son, Bharat. One wishes these two were what the rest of the movie was made of.