Shehzada is the new Kartik Aaryan film which is the official Bollywood remake of Allu Arjun’s Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo. The film was made on a budget of 100 crores and it collected around 260 crores. The film was released in 2020 and had a spectacular cast. On IMDb, it has a rating of 7.3/10 and 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, I of course haven’t seen the original one but if it is anything like the thing I saw today then I don’t know how the original film has such impressive numbers both on the box office and the ratings. The Hindi remake is directed by Rohit Dhawan, son of David Dhawan. Dhawan Jr. has given Indian cinema gems like Desi Boyz and Dishoom. Apart from Kartik Aaryan, the film stars Kriti Sanon, Ronit Roy, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Sunny Hinduja, Sachin Khedekar and Rajpal Yadav.
After seeing the trailer of the film, I had a fair idea of how the film was going to be, however, as I was a having a tough month I just wanted to watch something that makes me feel good about myself. I went into this movie with the thought that it would be therapy. However, after I wasted 2.5 hours of my life I feel no better, in fact I feel worse. Let’s see why.
Shehzada Review – Why Does This Film Exist?
Rating – 1/2 out of 5
I think Bollywood needs to understand that they don’t have to make Hindi remake of every successful but average South Indian film. The reason such films work in the south is because of the unfathomable fan following of their stars. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Hindi stars as they’ve lost their command at the box office, except for Shah Rukh Khan (Pathaan). I don’t know when the script was ready, why anyone felt like this movie would actually make money and is something that the Hindi audiences need right now.
In fact this is the first film that Kartik Aaryan has produced. Why did he feel the need to do so? I mean this is not a cheap film. It’s budget is reportedly 65 crores. I’m 200% sure that it is not making its money back. However, Netflix is the film’s streaming partner which means there was already a deal made before the theatrical release. As the film won’t make money at the theatres, it has already recovered it through the streaming deal. Talking about the plot of the film, it is nothing. A guy replaces his child with someone’s else’s and that kicks off the film.
After doing an ambitious and not perfect project like Freddy, I don’t know why Kartik chose to make such a film. The lead has no character he simply keeps smiling and gives big monologues with pathetic dialogues. Honestly, the film looks like a toothpaste advertisement as Kartik Aaryan constantly proves how good his teeth look. Rohit Dhawan is following his father’s footsteps when it comes to direction as I see traces of his filmmaking in this film- trashy plot, no logic, great production design but with no soul and lousy female characters.
Kriti Sanon is useless in the film, she is simply as an eye candy and at that she is very good. Kartik is unbearable to look at. The action sequences are really terrible at well. I never laughed in the film when I was supposed to. I only laughed when there was a serious moment because of how it was picturized. The entire plot of the film could be solved with a simple DNA test. This film is a criminal offence to be released in such a tight time for Hindi cinema. It is a miscarriage of cinema. The talented supporting actors like Paresh Rawal, Ronit Roy and Rajpal Yadav are completely wasted.
There were number of moments when I felt like scratching my eyes. There is absolutely no story to follow. I cannot analyze the film because this is not a film. This is something too alien for a puny human like me to understand. The end of the film is as bizarre as the rest of it. Paresh Rawal goes without any consequence despite being a murderer. Kartik never tells his mother the truth. I mean I think I can rant about this film for an hour but I don’t want to because I’ll simply prove how torturous it was to watch such a film which can be an industry killer.
Verdict
What is funny is even if you didn’t find the film as repulsive as me than too you will not consider this film as masterpiece, right? Wrong. There are some high minded individuals who live in nine dimensions as they’ve given the film great scores on IMDb. The IMDb score of the film is 9.6/10. I mean who has voted? It is clearly the crew and people involved in the production of the film who have been assigned by the producer to rate the film excellently so that the average number stands out.
The film is also releasing alongside Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The MCU flick will clearly outearn Shehzada even if the reviews of Quantumania are terrible as well. I don’t know how to rate this film because I’m waiting for the special number to be invented for this one. However, in human numbers I’ll rate the film 1/2 out of 5 stars. The half is because it is unethical to give a movie zero. The other reason is because Kriti Sanon looks really pretty throughout the film XD. I urge you not to watch this film if you don’t want to lose your will to live.
Shehzada is currently playing in theatres near you.
If you have any questions regarding Shehzada, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
