This week opened with the most anticipated movie of the year ‘Shaandaar’ starring Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, directed by Vikas ‘Queen’ Bahl. Queen was one of the surprise hits of 2013 and it not only gave a boost to Kangana Ranaut‘s career but also showcased a lot of promise from Vikas Bahl as a director. If Queen was his best then Shaandaar is his RGV Ki Aag!

The movie begins with an animated backstory narrated by Naseerudin Shah (voiceover) about an orphan girl Alia (Alia Bhat), who is brought home by Bipin Arora (Pankaj Kapoor). The family headed by Bipin’s mother Kamla Arora (Sushma Seth) as well as his wife (Nikki Aneja) do not like Alia, but she gets welcomed by his daughter Isha (Sanah Kapoor).

Alia is an insomniac and therefore never sleeps at night. Bipin finds a unique way to make Alia sleep, he sketches and gifts her everyday interesting things which she can dream of, alas she never sleeps. Years pass by, granny fixes Isha’s marriage with Fundwani’s (Sanjay Kapoor) younger brother Robin (Vikas Verma) to further their business relationship. Fundwani is a gold loving Sindhi millionaire who sees Queen Elizabeth to Michael Jackson as Sindhis and justifies with his sick sense of humor. In walks JJ aka Jagjinder Joginder (Shahid Kapoor) who is the wedding planner for Isha’s and Robin’s wedding.  It is attraction at first sight between Alia and JJ who is also an insomniac. What happens to Alia and JJ’s love story? Does the marriage based over a business deal work? To find out, watch the movie.

Coming to the story, there is none. The movie in totality is bad. There is nothing interesting in the script, dialogues or screenplay that will stay back with you. Vikas Bahl got overconfident with Queen’s success and thought he could make anything and the audience will like it but sadly you cannot fool the audience. Good actors, songs and scenic locations do not guarantee a successful movie.

Shahid, Alia, Pankaj Kapoor and Sushma Seth impress with their performances. Debutant Sanah Kapoor is quite impressive and leaves her mark with her performance. Sanjay Kapoor is as usual – BAD! The music by Amit Trivedi is good especially Gulabo and Shaam Shaandaar. The editing could have been crisper. The cinematography is wonderful and the locations have a fairytale kind of feel.

Overall the movie is a bad product and might not appeal to most of the people.

My Verdict: *