Critics’ Verdict: ‘Shaandaar’ Is No ‘Queen’, Gets Mixed Reviews

Check out how critics are reacting to Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt’s ‘Shaandaar’

Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in a scene from Shaandaar

Film: Shaandaar
Director: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Pankaj Kapur

Excerpts from reviews of Shaandaar:

<p>...but Bahl’s script quickly runs out of both plot and wit. There’s a lot going on in this crowded film, but not a lot of it makes sense. Still, buried somewhere beneath all the loony characters, the overstyled songs, and way too many indulgent, often incoherent scenes are some nice touches.These are small mercies in a wildly inconsistent film that seesaws unevenly between charming and WTF! It’s especially disappointing coming from the very writers and director that gave us last year’s terrific Queen. I’m going with a generous two out of five for Shaandaar. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.</p>

<p><b>Rajeev Masand (Ibnlive.com)</b></p>

<p><em>Shandaar</em> is supposed to be a wicked, sly, irreverent and subversive stoner comedy that celebrates as well as sends up wedding movies, but like the characters who get intoxicated on a combination of actual brownies and actual mushrooms, it suffers from a literal-minded and often infantile treatment.The 146-minute movie proceeds in a jerky and slapdash fashion, and only a few sequences hit the mark. Most of the comedy seems to be in the form of one big private joke that does not travel beyond the borders of the set.</p>

<p><b>Nandini Ramnath (Scroll.in)</b></p>

<p>...there’s an eternally sunny vibe to <em>Shaandaar</em>, which contains the oddities of its kooky characters from going overboard. A huge credit for it goes to its winning ensemble of actors and the sprightly chemistry they generate on celluloid.<br>Alia and Shahid convey a brand of exuberance that’s unaffected by the ensuing grandeur, they’re both a bohemian product of melancholy concealed in madness.<br>As one of the characters quizzes, why must we do every thing out of necessity, why can’t few things done for the fun of it, <em>Shaandaar</em> is simply fun, fun, fun and frothy enough to pull it off.</p>

<p><b>Sukanya Verma (Rediff.com)</b></p>

<p>It’s truly tragic, for example, to see that Vikas Bahl, director of the groundbreaking <i>Queen</i>, feels that his two feisty heroines, troubled by obnoxious opponents at a <i>qawwali</i>, need their men to rescue them instead of flinging it back themselves. It looks spiffy and there’s some gloss to like, but overall <i>Shaandaar</i> is pretty much — as Alia calls the fourth finger of the right hand — useless. By the end of the ordeal, even the finely-outfitted gatekeepers we saw early on have been replaced by ornamental life-size statues of Royal Guards. Bahl may have tried to go Disney, but this sure isn’t the real thing.</p>

<p><b>Raja Sen (Rajasen.com)</b></p>