Ranbir Kapoor returned to the big screen after four years with Karan Malhotra’s Shamshera, and his dual role as father and son does not compensate for the film’s failure. Shamshera is almost a parody of masala entertainers, which are frequently successful at the box office. The film’s treatment appears to be an attempt to resurrect that type of cinema for Hindi films. Shamshera stars Vaani Kapoor opposite Ranbir Kapoor, with Sanjay Dutt playing the antagonist.
Shamshera, set in the 1800s, tells the story of Balli (Ranbir), who aspires to be an army officer but comes from a tribe that has been enslaved by the British. Ranbir also plays Balli’s father, Shamshera, who was the tribal leader. Both Ranbir characters lead their tribes in an insurgency against the British.
Despite her pre-release interviews and false claims, Vaani has little to do in the film other than demonstrating her skills as a great dancer and seductress. She previously stated that her character Sona (Vaani), a traveling dancer in love with Balli, is emotionally vulnerable and has layers. Sona embodies all of the characteristics of a dancer in Hindi films from the 1990s and 2000s: she wards off her lover with cruel words sticks to him despite all odds and frequently uses her seduction skills to help her lover. This one has zero layers and no depth at all.
Certain sequences are reminiscent of the Bollywood era of shoddy gangster films in which murders were shown in the background while a heroine performed sultry moves in a dance bar.
Following a disclaimer stating that graphics were used to depict various birds and animals, Shamshera employs the murder of angry crows as a weapon of the protagonist. They even appear without being triggered in one scene to assist Ranbir in defeating his opponent.
Ranbir Kapoor as the father and son looks convincing and does an adequate job of getting into the skin of the characters, but he fails to lift the film and overcome the film’s writing flaws. He is now desperate for his next, Brahmastra, to work.
The film sets out to highlight the social evils of the caste system but instead creates a caricature of the characters themselves. The worst case is Shuddh Singh, an upper-caste, an extremely privileged, cruel cop who works for the British for personal gain. Sanjay Dutt, who plays Shuddh Singh in the film, also suffers a loss. Karan Malhotra appears to have asked Sanjay to revisit his Kancha Cheena madness from their 2012 film Agneepath with Shamshera.
Shuddh Singh, on the other hand, is worse than Karan’s Kancha Cheena. He appears even more caricaturish and gawkier. The use of Sanskrit shlokas (couplets) in an eerie voice as background music for all mean and cruel scenes involving Shuddh Singh dictates the scenes, frequently undermining the cruelty and fear the situation requires.
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