Shehzada Movie Review

Shehzada is a Kartik Aaryan vehicle from the first frame to the last. He’s been known as a massy entertainer, thanks to his motormouth skills. Here, in addition to rapid fire dialogue, we see him doing tons of action as well. The slo-mo action, which the South industry is famous for, is replicated here with full bangs and whistles. Look at it sideways, and you might think it’s Allu Arjun you’re watching, and not Kartik Aaryan. The illusion also comes into play because the film is a frame-to-frame faithful recreation of Trivikram Srinivas’s Telugu hit Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020), which starred Allu Arjun and Pooja Hegde. Nothing has changed. It has the same story, same character arcs, same kind of dialogue and Sachin Khedekar even reprises his role of a benevolent grandfather.

An office clerk Valmiki (Paresh Rawal) is happy to exchange his newborn son with his boss, Randeep’s stillborn son. He goes through the exchange even when the stillborn child is found to be alive, as he wants his son to grow up extremely rich. Cut to 25 years later. While the boss’ real son Bantu (Kartik Aaryan) grows up to be a street smart lawyer, the son he’s bringing up, Raj (Ankur Rathee), turns out to be a slacker of the first order. Bantu learns the truth about his birth and instead of being angry and claiming his inheritance, he infiltrates the Jindal household and solves everyone’s problems. He manages to unite his dad with his mom (Manisha Koirala). The duo have not been on talking terms with each other for seven years because of Randeep’s affair and finally open up to each other because of Bantu. He also manages to put a bit of a backbone into his foster brother’s spine as well. And in the middle of it all, he manages to defeat a businessman with mafia connections who has been harassing the family. And, lest we forget, he also has a roaring affair with Raj’s fiancee Samara (Kriti Sanon), who also happens to be Bantu’s boss.

Don’t expect anything to make sense because it doesn’t. The original was extremely loud and over the top, so the remake can hardly be less so. The film portrays rich folk as being naive, large-hearted and caring while those below them are shown to be cunning. The hero is shown to be a zen master of sorts who not only forgives everyone who has wronged him, he can see things from their perspective as well. And he also happens to be a good fighter too. Yes, we’ve seen all this and more in the ’70s and ’80s. Melodramatic films carrying lots of action were the staple of a bygone era but if the formula can set the cash registers ringing again, bring it back by all means. Music used to be one of the hallmarks of such films and even Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo had some good tunes to its credit but that hasn’t been replicated in Shehzada. The songs are okay but not genuine earworms. Mention must be made of Manisha Koirala and Ronit Roy, who bring a level of gravitas to the film. Paresh Rawal has done such roles before and is as dependable as ever.

Like in the original, the heroine has nothing substantial to do but look good. And that Kriti Sanon has done admirably well. She looks gorgeous in every frame and has a good enough chemistry with Kartik but that’s it. As said earlier, the film is Kartik Aaryan’s show all the way. He’s in his element here and one can see him enjoying himself doing hi-jinks actions and mouthing witty lines. His confidence level is on an all time high and as a result, he pulls off another improbable role with aplomb.