Ranbir Kapoor's Shamshera seems to owe a deep allegiance to RRR

There is no doubt that Ranbir Kapoor is one of the most talented actors of the post- Rishi Kapoor generation. But his choice of films simply sucks. Ranbir chose Anurag Kashyap ’s super-dud Bombay Velvet over Sanjay Leela Bhansali ’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram Leela .

He is now coming back on screen after a hiatus of four years in Yash Raj Films’ Shamshera .

Is that reason to rejoice? Going by the trailer, I am afraid things are not looking too good for Ranbir who desperately needs to be back in the limelight, and for the producers Yash Raj Films who have suffered two crippling back-to-back flops Jayeshbhai Jordaar and Samrat Prithviraj one after another.

The trailer of Shamshera features Ranbir as a do-gooder dacoit in the British Raj. The frenzied pacing, the boundless crowd-pulling tactics including a skimpily clad Vaani Kapoor cavorting in the desert-scape, and above a banshee cry of freedom from tyranny, it all seems like leftovers from SS Rajamouli ’s RRR .

For those of who thought dacoit dramas went out of favour after the passing away of Sanjay Dutt ’s dad Sunil Dutt , they should take a long hard look at the return of the galloping gore-mate.

Talented as he is, Ranbir doesn’t have the body language to play the horse-riding bandit. He should leave such antics to Vinod Khanna, Sunil Dutt or Dutt’s son Sanjay who is also a part of Shamshera. Sanjay Dutt plays the archvillain and he gets to insult the British colonist by throwing an intended insult in his face in Hindi, “Teri maa ki…” capped by “Mukut (crown).”

I doubt the slangish abuse about the mother existed in 1871 the period when Shamshera is set. Insulting the gora-log by speaking to them in a language that they don’t understand is sure to bring the roof down. Or so our mainstream filmmakers believe whose reference points filmi heroes ridiculing British colonists is Manmohan Desai’s Mard released in 1985.

Like much of what is coming out of Bollywood these days, Shamshera looks dated. The outlaw-as-Robinhood formula was seen way back in 1951 in Amiya Chakravarty’s Badal where Premnath played the outlawed do-gooder who robs the rich and helps the downtrodden.

Premnath by the way is a distant relative of Ranbir Kapoor. Just goes to show that nothing changes in the Bollywood formula. Yesterday’s swashbuckler is today’s rebooted messiah. Shamshera looks like the dacoit drama Raj Khosla or Sunil Dutt would have made in the 1970s.

Ranbir Kapoor also reminded me of his grandfather Raj Kapoor in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai. I seriously doubt present-day audiences would be happy with these nostalgic references in Shamshera.

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