Ok, so, it is Vikas Bahl, who gave us the Queen, and it is, of course, Shahid Kapoor, who stunned us in Haider, and the oh-so-cute Alia Bhatt who when put together make it sound really Shaandaar! But the reality is a departure from the expectations, so say the cine police.
Raja sen calls it an old-school Disney-esque film sans wit and consistency:
“There is such a thing as too much sugar. The very idea of cinema as confection is a fine one, for we could all occasionally use a soothing lozenge as an opiate, and some films are meant to shine with candied gloss and a whole lot of far-too-bright frosting. Shaandaar is director Vikas Bahl’s attempt at harmless, meaningless, utterly frothy cinema, more toffee-making than filmmaking, and he gets a great cast in place and polishes them up with rags made of thousand-rupee notes. This is a movie about bling more than it is a movie about characters or story, and while glamour in itself is a perfectly pleasurable ideal, there isn’t much here besides the shine. It’s an old-school Disney-esque film but sadly without the wit and — as is more critical when it comes to candy manufacture — the consistency. The result is bubblegum-Barjatya…”
Rajiv Masand has given it two stars and squarely calls it a bizarre film:
“There’s a scene in Shaandaar during which an entire wedding party, high on magic mushrooms and pot brownies, lose their minds temporarily and start doing strange things. It’s a fitting scene in a film that appears to have been made under similarly mind-altering influences. Yes, there’s no polite way to say this: Shandaar is a bizarre film.”
Our take: If there’s too much happening in your life this weekend, because Durga Puja festivities are drawing to an end and you have been really busy catching up with everyone, then just for some laid-back 145 minutes at the theatre maybe you can consider this. That’s all folks!
