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Movie Review: ‘Shaandaar’ is certainly not Shaandaar

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Shaandaar

Director: Vikas Bahl Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Pankaj Kapur, Sanjay Kapoor, Niki Aneja Walia, Sanah Kapoor, Vikas Verma, Sushma Seth, Diljit Dosanjh, Shibani Dandekar, Anjana Sukhani, Niyati & Karan Johar. Music: Amit Trivedi

Director Vikas Bahl (of ‘Queen’ fame) had garnered a lot of critical acclaim from his last Outing ‘Queen’. But in his latest outing ‘Shaandaar’, supposed to be a romantic comedy with all the elements of a family drama, Vikas has seriously failed to woo the cine goers
The film kicks off with an animated sequence with a voice over by Naseeruddin Shah introducing all the characters. The scenario In opens with Vipin Arora (Pankaj Kapur) driving an orphan girl Alia (Alia Bhatt) whom he adopts and brings home where the girl is mistreated by his mom (Sushma Seth) & wife (Niki Aneja). Alia is suffering from a sleep disorder whose world revolves around her adopted father (Pankaj Kapur) and his half sister Isha (Sanah Kapoor). Pankaj Kapur plays a possessive father who is very protective for his daughters Alia & Isha. The movie showcases about 2 affluent families one headed by cunning Kamla Arora a Punjabi Businesswomen and the other headed by money minded Sindhi tycoon Harry Fandwani (Sanjay Kapoor). Both the families are on the verge of bankruptcy and come together for a destination marriage cum Business deal between Vipin’s daughter Isha & Harry’s brother Robin. There is also a wedding planner Jagjinder Joginder called JJ played (Shahid Kapoor) who falls in love with Alia.

Director Vikas Bahl fails to impress the audiences this time. In fact, the film has weak in some departments including Vikas’ direction albeit the film has its plus points its mesmerizing photography, lovely sets, attractive locales and above all some catchy numbers too.
Performance wise débutante Sanah Kapoor is superb. Shahid Kapoor is 1st rate. Alia Bhatt as usual is outstanding while the rest of the cast is just about ok.

All in all this time around Vikas’ ‘Queen’ is certainly not ‘Shaandaar.

Letter from Hansal Mehta to Vishal Bharadwaj on Haider

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hansal-mehta-haider

Date : Sept 30, 2014

Subject : Your Chutzpah.

My dear Vishal,

Firstly, thank you for inviting me to watch Haider last night. Thank you for thinking of me. Let me tell you that you robbed me of my sleep last night. Your chutzpah had me awestruck, wondrously grateful and might I sheepishly admit, slightly envious.

Did you really write Haider? Or did you actually paint it? Those paintings of Kashmir and its people refuse to leave me. The characters in your chutzpah – where did they come from? Your mind or your heart? Did I witness poetry last night? Or was it cinema as it was meant to be but has ceased to be?

I’m now tormented by the pain of your world. I am overcome with Haider’s plight. I can feel Ghazala’s dilemma. I am still swept by the unspoken truth in Arshia’s sparkling eyes. The landscape that you painted, is a Kashmir I have never seen before. There is so much beauty yet so much melancholy. There is so much music in the silence of that stunning paradise. I can sing praises for your performers, for the impeccable casting, for the cinematography, for the gentle editing, for the seamless screenplay, for the mellifluous dialog, for the choreography, for the costumes, for the authenticity of the language used by your characters but I would hate to recount my experience with such mortal, hence limited measures of brilliance. Real brilliance cannot be quantified. Real brilliance cannot be compartmentalized or presented in bullet form. I will, therefore, not use my meager knowledge to dumb down what is truly a spiritual experience.

Dear Vishal, it is rare that a film can actually make somebody as egoistic as me feel so humbled, so moved. I witnessed a grand spectacle last night, a feat I thought our cinema was incapable of achieving. I became part of an operatic journey that transformed me. After Haider, I don’t think I will ever be the same director I used to be. The change, I hope, will be for the better. The change, I hope, will have me thanking you forever.

Nevertheless, thank you for Haider. Thank you for making a sleepless night so fulfilling. Thank you for a meditative experience. Thank you for the chutzpah!

Lots of love,

Hansal.

PS : I must tell you that watching Haider last night made me lament your absence in my life as a music composer.

Your music is special.

Give me more.

'Haider', set in the backdrop of Kashmir, gets 41 cuts from Censor Board

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hansal-mehta-haider

Bangalore: Vishal Bhardwaj’s ambitious rendition of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, ‘Haider’, has become the latest victim of the sharp scissors of the censor board, with 41 cuts before getting a U/A (Unrestricted Public Exhibition-But With Parental Guidance) certificate.

A truck load of corpses, wire being inserted inside a naked man, a shot of a bloody dead body, Shahid Kapoor crying on seeing flames, are some of the scenes deleted from the movie.

Interestingly, the Vishal Bhardwaj-Basharat Peer scripted movie, was the last film to be censored by CBFC’s suspended CEO, Rakesh Kumar, who is currently in judicial custody after being accused in a bribery case.

Haider, the latest in Bhardwaj’s list of adaptations of Shakespeare, has Kashmir at the heart of the story, with Peer’s acclaimed international bestseller, ‘Curfewed Night’ as its source.

“The film is an attempt to answer the stereotypical, jingoistic films Bollywood has made about Kashmir. Every character in the film is a Kashmiri—a doctor, a lawyer, teacher, a research scholar, a police officer. These are people who have agency and they’re not just victims,” Peer has said about his debut entry.

Haider, which also stars Tabu and Kay Kay Menon, is set for release on October 2.

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