Shamitabh is recommended only for its storyline, the quality of the performances and its technical brilliance.Shamitabh is embellished with great music (Ilaiyaraaja), some outstanding camerwork(P C Sreeram) and many impressively deft directorial touches.

Shamitabh sounds good but has nothing to say. It meanders on and on, like an old man lost in a car park. Bachchan is excellent, Dhanush does well, but both are straitjacketed by a flimsy, uneven story that is eventually just exhausting.

A reedy, scrawny, voice-less wannabe actor rides piggyback on a hypnotic, heavy baritone to super success in Bollywood : the premise of ‘Shamitabh’ is fabulous on many levels. Because of the cross-connections it makes with real life and reel life. It is Amitabh Bachchan, whose voice powers the movie, who is not able to break free from the pedestal he is put upon.