‘Shehzada’ movie review: A princely disappointment

Film ShehzadaDirector Rohit DhawanActorsKartik Aaryan Kriti Sanon Paresh Rawal Manisha Koirala Ronit Bose RoyRating 25Movie buffs can pinpoint exactly where a remake is different from its source material and whether the adaptation is better or worse than its inspiration That is probably why when retelling a story a filmmaker must bring his own unique perspective Where movies like the Drishyam franchise Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Hera Pheri managed to capture viewersrsquo attention director Rohit Dhawan fails to impress with ShehzadaAlso ReadBox Office Ajay Devgnstarrer Drishyam 2 collects Rs 9604 crore in six days to surpass Rs 100 crore todayThe Kartik Aaryanstarrer is the official remake of the runaway Telugu hit Ala Vaikunthapurramulloo 2020 starring Allu Arjun and Pooja Hegde The Hindi adaptation revolves around Bantu Aaryan mdash born to Randeep Nanda Rohit Bose Roy and Yashu Jindal Manisha Koirala mdash but is switched at birth by Valmiki Paresh Rawal Jealousy drives Valmiki to switch his own Raj Ankur Rathi with Bantu to get an upper hand over Randeep who soared to success after marrying business magnate Aditya Jindalrsquos Sachin Khedekar daughterAfter 25 years of being illtreated by Valmiki Bantu discovers the truth about his identity In a parallel track Samara Kriti Sanon mdash his lady love and boss mdash is engaged to Raj The core plot of the two boys exchanged at birth is pushed to the sidelines due to the multiple tracksComparisons with the Telugu original are inevitable but Aaryan puts in a spirited performance Only he doesnrsquot manage to pack a punch in the action sequences However there is only so much he can do Aaryan reminds us of a young Shahid Kapoor doing largerthanlife action in Phata Poster Nikhla Hero 2013 Having said that it is not easy to overtake Allu Arjunrsquos swag and conviction which turned an average script into a superhit that Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo became While Hegde played a travel entrepreneur in the Telugu film Sanonrsquos character has been altered to make her a lawyer However the script doesnrsquot even award her a single courtroom scene to justify the character Sanon looks gorgeous on the screen and her onscreen chemistry with Aaryan is easy on the eye But after a point Samara disappears from the narrative save for a family celebration songAlso ReadFans of Allu Arjun hail Kartik Aaryanstarrer ShehzadaRoy does a decent job of essaying the role of Randeep and there is hope to see more of Koirala Rawal is effective as the conniving Valmiki though the sinisterness of the character portrayed by Murali Sharma in the original appears to be toned down in this adaptation Rathi is passable as Raj Nanda and so is Sunny Hinduja as the baddie Sarang Khedekar reprises his character of the business magnate with equal zest Kunal Vijaykar as butler Cadbury and Rajpal Yadav as Inspector Yadav appear to have been cast for forceful laughsWhile Dhawan has tried to condense the twohourand45 minute Telugu original into two hours and 25 minutes he has edited out some good scenes The romantic track of the fake son and the boardroom meeting where Arjun dances to hit songs of other South superstars were interesting in the original Of course south director Trivikramrsquos Telugu film was not a perfect script but Dhawan has made no attempt to improvise some of the clicheacuted scenes reminiscent of the 1990sthemed masala fare Most of the dialogues have been translated verbatim in accordance with the screenplay resulting in rather stale fareExcept for the peppy number Munda sona main kudi tu crore di Pritamrsquos soundtrack is forgettable the moment you step out of the theatre And the less said about Character dheela 20 the better The composerrsquos recreation is not a patch on the hit song from Salman Khanrsquos Ready 2011

‘Shehzada’ movie review: A princely disappointment

Film: Shehzada
Director: Rohit Dhawan
Actors: Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Ronit Bose Roy
Rating: 2/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / ‘Shehzada’ movie review: A princely disappointment

‘Shehzada’ movie review: A princely disappointment

Film: ShehzadaDirector: Rohit DhawanActors: Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Ronit Bose RoyRating: 2/5

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Latest Videos

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Mid-Day Fast

Film: Shehzada
Director: Rohit Dhawan
Actors: Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Ronit Bose Roy
Rating: 2/5