Shambhu, produced by veteran producer Rajashekhar, is just a rehash of old and new cinema. It's worth a miss even if you are in the habit of watching Kannada films regularly. It is poorly directed by the young Dwarki, whose earlier Gunna was also a disaster of sorts.

These days, when everyone is talking about the Kannada film industry making progress in terms of quality, box office success and presentation, Shambhu comes across as an aberration. It makes you wonder how artists of Murali's calibre -- who won his first state government award for his performance Kanti � could accept such bizarre story ideas without battling their eyelids.

Shambhu loses the battle from scene one, beginning with the way it has been narrated. The film also has a separate comedy track that is really painful. There are traces of recent Tamil films like Tirumalai, and it pains us to see how a writer like Dwarki can claim credit for writing an original 'story' that has clearly been lifted from a number of other films.

Murali is an orphan, which lets him get away with anything including bashing the 20 odd villains who appear at regular intervals. He has no respect for sentiment and no time for love. The heroine, Maanya, tries to bring him to his senses. She has an ulterior motive though, and wants to use him as a pawn to checkmate her rich, cruel father. Maanya's father has a business rival who is equally cantankerous, cruel and cheap. He wants to bridge a relationship with this rival by offering his daughter to the latter's son. Maanya objects and takes Murali's help to unsettle her father. In the process, she falls in love with him.

Thousands of such stories have come and gone, but our directors refuse to learn from failure. They continue to zero in on such insipid fare. At a time when Kannada cinema is really going places, Shambhu sounds a sour note.

Murali has perfected the art of choosing the wrong subjects, as can be seen from his many failures this year. Maanya from Hyderabad is a good actress, but suffers on account of poor characterization. As villains, Avinash and Rangayana Raghu have nothing much to offer.

Eventually, Shambhu is not for those who want to look at the brighter side of Kannada cinema. It may not even please Murali's most ardent fans.