Shamshera rests on a clichéd but promising storyline. The world created by Karan Malhotra is fascinating and the build-up is nicely done. The first half has lots of entertaining and clapworthy moments. Also, visually, it’s quite stunning. The intermission point gives hope that the second half would be even better. From hereon, the film drops and how. One can predict the happenings from a mile away. Also, it’s convenient how all the plundering happens with minimal effort. The characters of Sanjay Dutt and Vaani Kapoor are not fleshed out well. Also, the usage of a voice that sounds like that of The Lord Of The Rings’ Gollum for Sanjay Dutt’s scenes doesn’t induce fear. Instead, it induces unintentional laughter. Speaking of performances, Ranbir Kapoor is the soul of the film. He has given everything to this role and it shows. And he looks quite nice doing mass and action scenes. Sanjay Dutt is quite over the top. Vaani Kapoor is decent but suffers from a lack of backstory and other problems. Ronit Roy, Saurabh Shukla and Iravati Harshe leave a mark. Craig McGinlay is okay. The music is poor and the romantic song ‘Fitoor’ is very boring. All in all, Shamshera is an average fare. It is watchable only due to the scale, mass moments in the first half and above all, Ranbir Kapoor.
My rating – ** ½ out of 5!