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When the Shaandaar trailer released and promotions occurred, everything was very BIG and GRAND! Today at the movies, I was taken into Vikas Bahl’s vision of a ‘shaandaar’ destination wedding with a bit a quirkiness, a cute love-story between JJ and Alia, and quite a lot of… cheesiness.
Walking out of the cinema hall today had me at a stuck point on how I felt about the film. It was cute, refreshing and mindless and a hundred-percent entertaining. But it could have been a lot more grand without the cheesy animation-story-telling.
So a heads up, this will be a very mixed-review…
The chemistry between Alia and Pankaj Kapur was beautiful, they effortlessly portrayed the father-daughter relationship we hope for. The on-screen chemistry between Shahid and father Pankaj, was electric! The real-life father-son were reel-life future son-in-law and father-in-law, it was hilarious to see their banter. Pankaj, Alia and Shahid have all proved their skills with amazing films in the past so the ease with which they performed was expected, the surprise however, was Sanah Kapoor.
Alia and Sanah played sisters in the film, it looked very natural. They support each other well as actors and it was lovely to see such a strong bond between adopted sister portrayed on screen. The younger Kapoor debuted in this film and she truly sparkled. She even gained weight for the role!
The cinematography, locations, and entire sets of Shaandaar were breathtakingly beautiful! I know every girl who will see this film will take a piece of it to their future wedding. True to its title, Isha and Robin’s wedding was shaandaar! Although, a lot of things didn’t make sense in the film, like if the family is bankrupt how are they paying for this lavish wedding?
The unstoppable music by Amit Trivedi was catchy and I wanted to join in on every song that played. I particularly enjoyed the qawalli, Senti Wali Mental by Arijit Singh and Neeti Mohan and Nazdeekiyaan by Nikhil Paul George.
I guess what pulled this film down was the cheesiness as I mentioned earlier. Everyone was basically a caricature, tons of stereotypes, over-acting and excessive internet lingo. I don’t want to give much of the story away, but there was a knock-off Koffee With Karan scene that featured Karan Johar, completely unncessary but at least we get to see Karan in action.
The animated insects which flew off Alia Bhatt’s clothing, the animated frog Alia befriends, and Shahid’s sparkling eyes brought a bit of immaturity to the film. Some things in the story didn’t make sense and emotional scenes were brushed away like it wasn’t of any value. I wish Vikas and the Shaandaar team would have overlooked these over-the-top points in the film which may have made the film a bit more bearable.
Urban Asian’s review of Shaandaar is
