This was an attempt to make an engaging crime-drama, hoping to cash in on Charles Sobhraj’s larger-than-life image. But the makers have taken truly explosive material and tamed it down, choosing to glamourize the villain to a nauseating level. The film had so much more potential!

As a cohesive whole, the film is a merry mess. Shaandaar, then, is a peculiar film – to be enjoyed for its beautiful moments, and to be endured for its bizarre ones.

Far from feeling offended by the movie, you end up feeling sorry for its limited vision. If the film were actually brave, it would offer a more balanced perspective. This one is of the whiners, by the whiners and for the whiners.

Ultimately the film is about a bumbling village guy, making it big in the city, and scoring with a “gori mem”. Watch it if songs like Choon Chan is your idea of music. Watch it if you can forgive seeing much-loved stars reduced to playing stereotypical roles. Watch it if you want Bollywood to be stuck in a pathetic time-warp!

Whatever the twisted point of view is, it’s pretty bleak. And if you have such a pessimistic view of calendar girls, why make a film on them in the first place?

One wonders if we’ll always be stuck with comedies, that in an attempt to be massy, end up as regressive and stuck in a time-warp.

This is a film you wanted to like for various reasons, primarily that there hasn’t been a good Hindi film on our screens since long. And secondly for Kangna Ranaut who steals your heart with her performance, in spite of the fact that you struggle to understand her character’s behavior right till the end.

Ah, it’s going to be some more waiting at the theatres, I guess. Watch it if you must for Ranaut’s crackerjack act.

After watching three hours of this torturous film, a thought came to mind. It’s a plea actually. To Salman Khan and all other producers who actually have the power to shape the cinema that reaches us. If you have the resources, filmmaking expertise, and an obvious passion for cinema, why not back good films that take us forward and not a hundred steps behind? Would someone be so kind as to answer this question, please?

The film, based on Hussain Zaidi’s book Mumbai Avengers, moves you only towards the end, especially when you realize that 166 people died in the 26/11 terrorist attack, and that none of the terrorist masterminds have been punished.

Which is why, this monumental tragedy needed a throbbing, emotional film that could express the collective nation’s angst. It’s disappointing indeed to see a film with such a passionate story, turn out this bland and lackluster!

It’s perplexing how Umesh Shukla, who made the simple and entertaining OMG Oh My God!, could have come up with this sub-par deal. With comedy that’s more likely to make you cry, all is well in the movie’s finale, except the viewer’s state. Avoid!