Shehzada movie review: Kartik Aaryan has swag, but the film can’t match up to Allu Arjun’s original

Cast: Kartik Aaryan, Paresh Rawal, Kriti Sanon, Ronit Roy, Manisha Koirala Director: Rohit Dhawan Language: Hindi It would take a lot of charisma to repeat, if not necessarily replicate, what Allu Arjun has already done. The Telugu actor has been bestowed with the tag of the Stylish Star. In Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, he played a slacker who’s actually a Shehzada who was switched at birth by a greedy father. What seems sacrifice at first turns out to be deceit. Nearly four years later, Rohit Dhawan makes a remake with Kartik Aaryan in the lead, titled Shehzada. For all the swag Aaryan tries to exude, comparisons with Arjun are inescapable. His Bantu is a happy-go-lucky, aimless chap, but not any different from what the leading man has done before. The flashing smile is now monotonous, and even though the film steers clear from the track of ogling at the leading lady’s legs by our hero, the dialogues are alarming. Right at their first meeting, Bantu, the man Aaryan plays, describes the heroine (Kriti Sanon) as patola, l_ambi taangon waali_, and we are supposed to consider this cute and funny. Aaryan embodies the body language of his previous works. His flirtatiousness is reminiscent of Pyaar Ka Punchnama, his teary-eyed sentimentality looks straight out of Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, and his comic language was recently seen in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. The problem with the remake is it never earns the mood it wants to create. There are romantic songs, there’s comedy, there’s action, what we often encounter in films described as family entertainment. But Shehzada never makes us travel back in time or embrace the fragrance of nostalgia. It actually makes us crave for it even more. The love story blossoms even before we can care for the leads. And Sanon, who showed with Bareilly Ki Barfi and Mimi she can sparkle with a solid script, is nearly reduced to the actor’s desire and dream. To give credit where it’s due, at least she’s not fantasized as problematically as Pooja Hegde in the original. The other issue with Shehzada is the director himself, at least for me. In his first film Desi Boyz, he cast Akshay Kumar and John Abraham, and also Chitrangda Singh and Deepika Padukone. But he was so busy building the story and chemistry between and around the two heroes, he forgot the actresses existed too. Ditto for Shehzada, he has Manisha Koirala as a part of the cast, but try to recall what she does in the film once it’s over. Of course, it’s not a washout at all. Paresh Rawal does a good job at essaying the role of a desperate, helpless, and also a very despicable father. He gets along well with Aaryan but that has more to do with his calibre as a performer than the story. Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo is far from Allu Arjun’s best work, but he carried the weight of its imperfections with effortless joyness. Let’s see how far Aaryan can take the retelling. Will he truly prove to be a Shehzada or Shehza-duh? Rating: 2 (out of 5 stars) Shehzada is playing in cinemas

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