Shaandaar Movie Review

The trailers of Shaandaar have promised a fun romantic comedy with a quirk. Shahid Kapoor gained a lot of respect for his performance in Haider, Alia Bhatt has been swiftly rising as a dependable star, Vikas Bahl has garnered admirers after delivering the semi classic Queen in his last film. So when all three of them come together for one single project then curiosity is sure to be raised and so are expectations. Do the makers do any justice to our expectations? And is the film any good?

Story: The elder daughter of the scion Vipin Arora (Pankaj Kapur) is about to get married and the wedding takes place in a castle in England. She is about to marry the son of the super rich Harry Fundwani (Sanjay Kapoor) which Vipin secretly hopes will save his floundering company. In comes Jagjinder Joginder (Shahid), the wedding planner who becomes like a prince charming of sorts for Vipin’s younger daughter Alia (Alia Bhatt). Will the two fall in love? Will the Aroras be able to save their business empire? To know, watch the movie.

Screenplay and Direction: First things first, Shaandaar is a disappointing film. When you expect so much from a film, it gets hard for the director to deliver so much but the tragic thing about Shaandaar is that even if you have very few expectations from the movie, even then you are sure to be disappointed. Shaandaar is a convulated, weird and frankly very boring tale for a movie which seemed so fresh and quirky. Vikas should have been responsible enough to not let it become weird. There are many points in the movie which are sleep inducing but you tend to forgive the writer-director because of the apparent promise in the quirks of the movie. What doesn’t work, just doesn’t work and what works only works to the bare minimum.

Shaandaar is technically a very finely shot movie with a lot of grandeuer and class. The production design is top quality and the costume design is fantastic. The editing is also very crispy although it is let down by the proceedings on screen. The music of Shaandaar is another disappointment. You expect a lot more from Amit Trivedi. Even though none of the songs are bad, the quality of the soundtrack is below average. The only song which makes a mark is Gulaabo.

Acting: Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt continuously shine through the staleness of the movie and give very good performances which somehow salvage the movie to an extent. Shahid is looking fresh, and emotes well. His comic and romantic timing is spot on. Alia Bhatt looks sensational and keeps getting better with every movie. She is getting more expressive by the day and in Shaandaar she explores her comic side a lot more with limited results. Pankaj Kapur is at his normal best. Sanjay Kapoor makes a surprise comeback in the movie and is decent.

Conclusion: Shaandaar held a lot of promise because it was the coming together of drastically different styles of filmmaking (Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap style). It invariable ends up being neither and sets itself up for a death trap. It doesn’t entertain, doesn’t enlighten and doesn’t even make us laugh. A big festive release should do the bare minimum of keeping the audience entertained. Shaandaar is salvaged somewhat by the last few minutes and by the spritely fresh pairing of Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt who give it their best show and rise above the film itself. Shaandaar is hardly a Shaandaar piece of movie-making.

Pros:

• The quirk of the story
• The in form lead actors Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt give it their best
• Shaandaar is technically fantastic

Cons:

• Doesn’t spark a lot of laughter and fails to entertain much
• The story is too derivative for the normal audience
• Is neither a good Phantom film nor a good Dharma film
• The music doesn’t stick with you
• The pace is too slow which makes the film boring

Rating: