‘Shehzada’ movie review: Kartik Aaryan can’t salvage this prince of pointless banter

A good masala recipe turns bland in the hands of director Rohit Dhawan, becoming the wrong vehicle to launch Kartik Aaryan into the universe of a mass entertainer

A jaded remake of Telugu blockbuster  Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, Shehzada stutters in what it sets out to do: entertain. At the core, it is a ‘Manmohan Desai meets Davi Dhawan’ kind of masala recipe but in the hands of director Rohit Dhawan, it tastes rather bland and generic.

The original Telugu movie ran on the emotional underpinning of Trivikram Srinivas’s story that was rooted in the centuries of social divisions and, of course, the bewitching swag of Allu Arjun. Both are in short supply here as the intrinsic logic doesn’t hold and Rohit fails to make us suspend disbelief after half an hour. Valmiki (Paresh Rawal) swaps his newborn with that of his master Randeep Jindal (Ronit Roy) so that his boy can have a lavish life. However, things don’t turn out according to the plan, if there is one, as Bantu’s (Kartik Aaryan) genes could not be tamed by the taunts of Valmiki.

We could see through the regressive undertones where the makers take the side of pedigree in the nature versus nurture debate and the charade in the name of performances. The ribaldry and the social insensitivity of the idea have been toned down, perhaps not to offend the multiplex audience, but in the process, it turns  Shehzada into a toothless animal. The rest of the two hours are predictably spent on the antics of a selfless boy with a golden heart that is drawn from a series of pan-Indian hits of yore.

Hussain Dalal’s dialogues lack the relentless punch that we expect in the dialogues from a product from the house of Dhawans. Whatever fun there is in lines has already been squeezed out in the trailers. Kartik has chosen the wrong vehicle to enter the universe of a mass entertainer. He is not bad, but here he is hamstrung by a script that expects him to take a leap without signing off the  Punchnama of his buddy image. He is stuck somewhere in the past.

It could have still been salvaged if the skits in between were funny and the songs and dance — which were the highlight of the original and the reason for the presence of a female lead in the film — added some value to the proceedings. The music doesn’t hold our senses and Kriti is utterly wasted in a sketchy role that provides her lots of legroom but little else.

Ronit seems to have walked straight from a daily soap set and, together with Manisha Koirala, tries hard to inject some melodrama and dollops of grace into the proceedings. However, they can’t save this prince of pointless banter.

Shehzada is currently running in theatres