24 frames per second

Shiva is a late-80s action movie about one man taking on an organized crime syndicate. Considering how many such movies get made regularly even today, it’s amazing that it still holds up so well. Some scenes come across as tacky, and the lighter material is of the hit-or-miss variety, but the intensity of the movie is undimmed.

The iconic moment in Shiva is clearly the cycle-chain scene. Sometime soon after Shiva (Nagarjuna) has had his first fight with the college goon, he sees him and his henchmen outside the college waiting for him. He takes a long, cold look at them, then pulls out the chain from his bicycle and slowly wraps it around his fist. You know what happens next.

Heroes picking up assorted weaponry when they see some goons is not new. But I think what makes this scene work is how expressionless Nagarjuna’s face is when he’s pulling out that chain. I’ve spoken of how effective minimal expression can be in an earlier post. This is a good example of that principle.