Shamshera

I am speechless. As much as I love Hindi films, the track record for Hindi language films has been going downhill for a while now. One of the biggest contributors has been YRF - Yash Raj Films; back to back disasters. It's like they are living in the past and they are teleporting to the present to release the film. Shamshera; a film that has had a very patchy promotional run prior to release suffers big time due to it's dated script. Ranbir Kapoor's return after a 4 year hiatus is dated & excruciating.

Set in the 19th century (presumably in an alternate dimension), Shamshera is the title given to the leader of the Khameran people. 25 years after old man Shamshera (Ranbir) is stoned to death, his son Balli (also Ranbir) inherits the moniker of Shamshera and fights Sanjay Dutt's Daroga Singh to set his people free.

Shamshera is influenced by many films but what stands out is how difficult it is to sit through this film. In the department of atrocities inflicted on man by period feature films, Shamshera stands out (and you thought Samrat Prithviraj was bad). Vaani Kapoor atleast doesn't have a role as insignificant as Katrina Kaif's in ToH. Ranbir is charming but sadly charm doesn't make a film bearable. And it is high time that Sanjay Dutt dropped the evil guy persona. Honestly speaking it is getting tiring and irritating now.

The only saving grace is the film's soundtrack. It has some memorable original tracks and that is an achievement in itself in today's world.

Karan Malhotra helmed the remake of Agneepath, which was an epic but with Shamshera, it seems like the YRF bug bit him.

Shamshera feels more like a stop-gap release for Ranbir before his highly anticipated Brahmastra. But with the response Shamshera is receiving, I am not sure how audiences will receive Brahmastra. This is not the hate speaking (a lot of it going around against Hindi film actors and films), but Shamshera is genuinely bad. Ranbir's worst since Besharam.