Vikas Bahl’s latest venture, starring Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in the lead alongside an ensemble cast (of sorts), is out. The self-proclaimed Shaandaar feature film’s trailers promised a lot: a grand setting, a lively love story and quotable quotes. But do Vikas Bahl and his galaxy of mini-stars manage to deliver as much as they promise? Let’s take a look.
Shaandaar starts off as an animation, showing Bipin Arora (Pankaj Kapoor) bringing home a supposedly orphaned girl, Alia (Alia Bhatt) – much to the displeasure of his mother (Sushma Seth) and wife, Geetu (Niki Aneja). Bipin and Geetu already have one daughter of their own, Eesha (Sanah Kapoor).
The most annoying thing about Shaandaar is the fact that it tries too hard to achieve everything and manages to achieve very little
As if being an orphan wasn’t “enough”, it is soon discovered that Alia has another “curse”: insomnia. Years pass and her insomnia begins to define her. She develops strong reading habits because she stays up all night reading books, but is loathed by her adoptive family because of this “fault”. All they desire is to find someone who can cure her of her insomnia (if not her self) – and in due time, they do.
When her adoptive sister is set to get married in London, a wedding planner is flown in to make sure everything is perfect. Enter: Jagjinder Joginder (Shahid Kapoor).
Despite having a tongue-twister for a name (or, perhaps, because of it), Jagjinder Joginder – aka JJ – is a charmer who instantly falls in love with Alia and manages to ensure the reverse. Being the lifesaver that he is, JJ cures Alia of all her troubles – including insomnia. However, their love story isn’t the only discussable topic in this two-and-a-half-hour long film. Behind the scenes – pun unintended – the more serious issues of crumbling family empires and the underhand tactics they resort to for restoring their familial “glory” – pun intended – are laid bare. And in the centre of it all lies the bride-to-be, Eesha.
Despite having a mini collection of stars, it is hard to associate Shaandaar with any notable acting performances, except, perhaps, that of the three leading actors: Shahid Kapoor, Pankaj Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Shahid Kapoor, undoubtedly, was the anchor of a film that was scattered in many ways, but despite his best comic efforts and commendable chemistry with both Alia and her father, Kapoor fails to save the movie riddled with loopholes.
Shahid and Alia with Karan Johar at the film's trailer release
It isn’t often in modern Hindi cinema that the director is responsible for the failure of his film - especially not a Filmfare Award-winning director like Vikas Bahl. More often than not, it is the actors who fail to deliver or the writers who chalk out weak scripts (which actually was the case with Shaandaar, too). Sadly in the case of Shaandaar, much of the responsibility for the film’s lacklustre appearance should lie with the director’s inability to form a cohesive visual experience. What added to the disappointment of Shaandar was perhaps Bahl’s success with Queen, which had raised his audience’s expectations. Since Queen’s execution – with its impeccable screenplay and script – was so masterful, the audience did not expect Shaandaar’s ‘50s Disney movie vibe packaged with an awful script. That is what they got.
Is Shahid Kapoor on a downward slope?
After years of hard work, Shahid Kapoor finally succeeded in entering the highly coveted list of Filmfare Best Actor Award-winners, for his performance in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider. However, his glory, it seems, was short lived, if his critics are to be believed, who say that Kapoor’s career has set off on a downward trajectory with his appearance in Shaandaar.
If the reason behind this is that Shaandaar was a light, romantic comedy and Haider was an intense remake of a Shakespearean tragedy, then with all due respect to the worthy allegers, their allegation is utter nonsense. If, on the other hand, the reason behind the allegations is that Shahid Kapoor hasn’t performed as well in Shaandaar as he did in Haider, then the notion might hold water – and even then, not quite so much.
Much like their Hollywood counterparts, Bollywood film critics have developed a habit of glorifying everything intense and serious and ridiculing everything light and humorous. Why is it that anyone playing a goofy, comic role to perfection is rarely ever lauded as an exceptional actor? And why is it that a perfectly ordinary actor is glorified as one of the best just because he can pull off a frown? The point being made is quite simple: it isn’t the nature of the role that defines the quality of the actor, but its execution. Sanjay Dutt was just as good an actor in Vaastav as he was in Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
So unless critics have some constructive feedback on Shahid Kapoor’s acting techniques or execution in Shaandaar, they should cut the poor guy some slack.
Despite all its drawbacks, Shaandaar had its moments, primarily engineered by Shahid Kapoor’s character, with due help from Pankaj Kapoor – who also happens to be his father in real life – and Alia Bhatt. The real pleasant surprise was the chemistry between Alia and Shahid, which was creaseless, showing that Shahid Kapoor may finally have achieved the ability to truly lead a film’s cast – a quality that has made Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar the most cashable Bollywood actors of modern times.
The most annoying thing about Shaandaar is the fact that it tries too hard to achieve everything and manages to achieve very little. It is quite clear that the writer had too many goals for film’s script: a (clichéd) fairy-tale, a (clichéd) Disney movie, a (clichéd) Bollywood romance, and of course, a politically correct, cliché of a “message”. It is as they say: too many underplots spoil the story. And Shaandaar, unfortunately, is a shaandaar example of that notion.
