Review for SHAMSHERA:
•Language: HINDI.
•Duration: 02 Hours 38 Minutes.
•Genre: Periodic Action Thriller.
•REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R
• POSITIVES:
1: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS
2: CINEMATOGRAPHY
3: PRODUCTION DESIGN
4: GRAPHICS AND VFX
5: SONGS AND BACKGROUND SCORE
6: BRILLIANT DANCE OF VAANI KAPOOR
7: GOOD FIRST HALF
• NEGATIVES:
1: WEAK DIRECTION
2: OUTDATED STORY
3: HALF-BAKED SCREENPLAY
4: CLICHES
5: PREDICTABILITY
6: LENGTHY SECOND HALF
•ONE WORD: A boring movie filled with cliches, highly disappointing experience.
•STORY IDEA:
The story of Shamshera happens in Kaza which is a fictitious city. In the city of Kaza, the warrior tribe is tortured and held as slaves, they are imprisoned by a ruthless officer named Shudh Singh who works for the British government. And soon a man arrives, named Shamshera. A man who becomes a slave, a slave who becomes a leader and then a legend for his tribe, it’s the courageous and adventurers of Shamshera.
•ANALYSIS OF THE DIRECTION, STORY, SCREENPLAY AND DIALOGUES:
The film Shamshera is directed by Karan Malhotra after his previous movies such as Brothers and Agneepath. The story for the film is written by Neelesh Misra and Khila Bisht and the screenplay is written by Ekta Pathak Malhotra and the director Karan Malhotra. The film is produced by Aditya Chopra under his production company Yash Raj Films. The movie is made on a budget of Rs 150 Crores and it is dubbed into the languages of Tamil and Telugu. With a running time of 159 minutes the film is currently running all over the theatres in India.
The outdated story and the average screenplay is the main drawback of the film Shamshera. I went to watch the movie with high hopes but the routine formula and the repetition of many periodical movies was giving a dull cinematic experience. The whole movie is predictable, from the very beginning and till the end we will get an idea of what is going to be next. The predictability in the movie was killing the excitement and at the same time, the scene which is supposed to make us excited doesn’t amuse us. The cliched way of storytelling in the film was also making the film boring and connecting events to the next incidents are also hard to believe. Also, the film lacked powerful dialogue, good punchy dialogue should have been given for the character of Ranbir Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt. I expected some catchy dialogue in the face-to-face scenes between Ranbir and Sanjay but the final result was a disappointment so their combination scene failed to make a big impact.
The movie had a convincing beginning, and the introduction of the character Shamshera was told effectively. His life, how he leads his people, his dream, his family, his struggle and his sacrifice were directed authentically and all those scenes helped to establish the life of the central character. After the introduction of Ranbir Kapoor as Balli, the movie starts to kick off the hidden truth about his father. The scene in which Balli trying to escape from the prison was shot amazingly, it was filled with clap worthy moments. It was giving me hope for something big, and the interval block was promising. But gradually the movie started to get scattered from the second half. From the second half, the movie was crammed with a bunch of routine cliches. Hero gets to know about his father’s legacy, teaming with a group of people to fight, robbing gold and money and donating them to poor ones, hero-villain cat and mouse play, and finally killing the one and only enemy etc all these typical regular routine cliches were shamelessly brought once again by the writer and director.
The second half was so weak, that all the events which led to the final climax were carelessly written. The Robbery scene doesn’t thrill, the cat and mouse play between hero and villain was never surprising and the twist and turns in the mid-second half were supposed to give a shock but it was utterly upsetting. The climax was so filmy and dramatic, with regular heroic build-up dialogues. Hero gets beaten hard and after a few minutes his loved ones call his name and he gets back strongly to fight, and killing the villain with an overdramatic fight was utterly tedious to watch. In between the screenplay’s focus on the romance of Ranbir Kapoor and Vaani Kapoor, it was messed up. Their romance and their chemistry were not having enough depth. How they fall in love, their marriage, and their combined fight against villains were poorly made. So the weak direction and the outdated storyline with a half-baked screenplay make this movie dull. The contents of Shamshera were less to make an impression, the movie reminded me of the disastrous film ‘Thugs of Hindostan, still Shamshera is far way better.
•PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS:
The movie had the casting of Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Vaani Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana, Saurabh Shukla, Ronit Roy, Tridha Choudhury, Pitobash Tripathy and many more.
Ranbir Kapoor is the one who was trying to save this sinking movie from not to get falling off. I didn’t love the film, the performance of Ranbir Kapoor and his double role character was the element which made me sit down and watch. His energy and the way he performed the character were charming, and the action sequences and the heroic style he showcased suited the character. Ranbir Kapoor as Shamshera and Balli had given the best, the two character shades were acted out genuinely. The intense look and the perfection in showcasing the facial expression were nicely handled. The dialogue delivery was fine and the action sequences looked rigid. His romantic scenes were impressive and the emotional scenes went firm.
Sanjay Dutt as Kancha Cheena did a good job, we know his calibre when he turns out as a villain but this character was not having enough content to make him a dreaded villain. Still, he performed well and the outlook and his attitude suited to set the negative shade. His way of telling the dialogue and the way he expresses his emotions looked nice, at the same time the funny and fearful face had given an extra effect to his villain mannerism. The satire of a manic police officer and the body language with terrific energy was good to watch.
Vaani Kapoor looked gorgeous, her beauty was dropping everywhere and I couldn’t take my eyes off. Her smile was beautiful and the fantastic body shape was making her sexier. Her dance was a treat to watch, the way she danced was mesmerizing. Her emotional scenes looked fine and the romance with Ranbir was fair. The chemistry between Ranbir Kapoor and Vani Kapoor was not that great, due to the poor writing their love lacked depth. Saurabh Shukla and Ronit Roy did justice to their respective supporting characters.
•MUSIC AND BACKGROUND SCORE:
The music composition for the film is composed by Mithoon and it includes the background score. The soundtrack of Shamshera consists of six songs and all the songs felt fresh. The six songs were matching for the situations in the film and the overall soundtrack was impressive. The song “Fitoor” sung by Arijit Singh and Neeti Mohan is my favourite among the six songs. The vocals of Arijit Singh and Neeti Mohan had made the song beautiful, their voice was having a prominent power to take us into the mood of romance. The choir singing portion in the song was magical and at the time when Arjith Singh starts singing we will be able to feel the real love and happiness. The lyrics written by the director Karan Malhotra were filled with the worlds of true love. The song is already on the top hit chart and while watching in the theatre the song had given me an extra feel and I’m sure everyone will love it. The second song “Ji Huzoor” was influential because of the voice of Aditya Narayan, also the beats and the dance of Ranbir in the song made it enjoyable. The third song “Kaale Naina” was filled with the beauty of Vaani Kapoor, her dance moves were sexier and the grace on her dance moves will fascinate everyone. Shadaab Faridi, Neeti Mohan, Sudesh Bhosle nailed the song through their voice and the lyrics of Mithoon had the style of traditional wordings. The final song “Parinda” had a slow pace vibe to showcase the emotional side, the voice of Sukhwinder Singh and Abhishek Nailwal made the song powerful to exhibit the sentiment and struggle.
The background score in the film was drawing my attention, I loved the background score. It felt fresh and the background score used while narrating the story had given a feel in the beginning. Also during the action sequences, the background score was decent, still the over-dramatic scenes didn’t give an impact for the good background score. Also at the time of the emotional scene, the background score was neatly tuned and given but the tedious way of writing and cliche doesn’t let the background score to produce an emotional attachment.
•TECHNICAL DIVISION:
The film is technically rich, it’s made on a budget of 150 Crores so the technicality of the film had the proper standard. The cinematography of Anay Goswamy was splendid with attractive visuals. The specific culture and the British ruling period in India were undertaken authentically by the cinematographer, the visuals were wrong enough to grab our attention. The wide-angle frames were plentiful and it looked incredible and those were enrolled with beautiful shots of Ranbir Kapoor. The close-up frame of Ranbir Kapoor pointed out his good natural acting. The atmosphere of Kaza was fearful, to make that happen the cinematographer had captured the best shot. The scenes in which the people suffer, the difficulties to survive, the harsh beating and torture and the officer treating the poor as slaves were shot effectively without losing depth. So the visuals were having the power to make an influence, the scene in which Ranbir trying to escape from jail was also shot brilliantly. The dance shots of Vaani Kapoor looked elegant and the visuals of the song “Fitoor” was romantic. The editing could have been done much better because the second half was dragged and it was lengthy. Neat editing could have saved the length of the second half, the transition of scene from one to another was satisfying. The graphics and VFX were of adequate quality and all the crow scenes in the film were top class. The train scene and the crown robbing scenes also looked appealing because of the good VFX. The artwork had done a stunning job to make the place Kazi fearful and the production design was also executed cleverly.
•CONCLUSION:
So overall to conclude the film Shamshera had given me a disappointing experience, the outdated script and the poor making were testing my patience. The performance of Ranbir Kapoor, Vani Kapoor, and Sanjay Dutt was good but even their screen presence was not saving this sinking ship. The predictability in the storyline, the bunch of cliches, and the overdramatic heroic scenes were offering me a boring experience. So I won’t recommend Shamshera to anyone but if you are a fan of Ranbir Kapoor then you watch it for once and still please watch it with fewer expectations.
•VERDICT: BELOW AVERAGE
•RATING: 2.5/5
