Shivalinga Review {2.5/5}: Sivalinga will not disappoint you, if the songs and other unimportant elements can be spared

Sivalinga SYNOPSIS : A CBI officer, who is assigned to investigate a murder, realises that his newly married wife is possessed by the ghost of the young man, whose murder is being probed.Sivalinga REVIEW : The movie begins with a cook, Rahim (Saktivel Vasu) being pushed out from a moving train, which seems to be ruled out as a suicide but is not. Upon the request of Sangeetha (Sara Devi), the lover of Rahim, the case is re-opened and here comes the officer, Sivalinga (Raghava Lawrence) to scrutinize the murder.Raghava Lawrence, who by this time is commendable in doing the similar kind of roles, like he has been doing in ‘Kanchana’, its prequel ‘Muni’, his latest ‘Ganga’ et all, has slipped into the character once again with ease. Though the multi-talented choreographer-turned-actor is only becoming an imitation of other superstars in the industry, is going ahead with his favorite genre, but with scripts that are narrated time and again. Sivalinga proceeds to investigate the death of Rahim, after marrying Satyabhama (Ritika Singh) who is seemingly uncomfortable in a mass masala flick after a decent debut in ‘Guru’. Sivalinga is shocked to learn that Satyabhama is possessed by the ghost of Rahim, who tells him that he wouldn’t leave the body until the case is solved.Director Vasu has made this movie in Kannada earlier with the same name and the story is another version of a mix from earlier movies ‘Chandramukhi’ and ‘Kanchana’. Eerily, the similarities from both the movies can be found without even the viewer making a keen observation. The character of Sivalinga, who is already scared of ghosts and a mother played by Urvasi, who makes it up instead Kovai Sarala and Vadi Velu, who did the same job as in ‘Chandramukhi’- are all the same. A dialogue that sounds- ‘Jula Jula Jula’ instead ‘Laka Laka Laka’ too has been incorporated easily without a thought.The movie had its separate comedy track and unnecessary song sequences like in ‘Kanchana’ which couldn’t be of any help rather than proving it to be a commercial formula and a mere waste of time. Interestingly, the saving point of the film is that Rahim, whose ghost is now in quest of the real murderer doesn’t know who and why they murdered him.Rahim’s pet dove is an important part of the movie which helps Sivalinga in bringing the murderer to light but the episode was not given much attention to. Nonetheless, Sivalinga will not disappoint you, if the songs and other unimportant elements can be spared.