It's a festive mood around with everyone enjoying the extended weekend due to Dussehra. So to cash in on this, we have film makers across industries making a scrabble to display their wares. Prominent among them is Vikas Bahl's "Shaandaar" which has Shahid & Alia as the lead pair. The promos promises it to be a fun filled movie & the chemistry between the duo seems cracking. So will it be the Queen of 2015???

Alia (Alia Bhatt) was an orphan adopted by the millionaire Vipin Arora (Pankaj Kapoor), though it could be more appropriately said that he was a meek simpleton. Even his siblings also belonged to the same category as the reins of the household was in his mother's hands, a wheel chair bound cold hearted Mummyji (Sushma Seth). Though not quite the darling of Mummyji & her foster mother, Alia shared a warm relationship with her rotund half sister, Isha (Sanah Kapoor) whose marriage was fixed with the wealthy Fundwani family. The wedding was planned as an elaborate event which was co-ordinated by the sprightly Jagjinder Joginder (Shahid Kapoor), who wins the hearts of everyone except Vipin who was insecure of the former's increasing proximity to Alia. How this gala wedding ceremony pans out forms the crux of the movie.

After the brilliant "Queen" which ruled the roost last year, Vikas Bahl is back with his latest venture which however turned out to be a mediocre candy floss. There is a world of disparity between the quality of the scripts & it comes as a rude surprise that it was indeed conceived by Vikas & written by Anvita Dutt. The major flaw of the movie as is evident by now is the lack of a credible plot. It actually seemed like a large cast was assembled & they were asked to perform to their heart's delight with songs inserted in between the proceedings. As a matter if fact, it's the cast which actually made this movie enjoyable at times due to the delightful chemistry between Shahid, Alia, Pankaj & Sanah. In the technical department, Anil Mehta has done a decent job with the visuals while Amit Trivedi's music was average at best.

Coming to performances, Shahid & Alia shared excellent chemistry and seemed to be at utmost ease in essaying their characters. Pankaj Kapoor is an actor par excellence, so in a role that barely challenged him; it was a cake walk for the veteran & the interaction with his real life son made for an enjoyable watch. Sanah Kapoor (who is actually the half sister of Shahid) has done an apt job while Sanjay Kapoor's over the top act which was hilarious at times reminded me of Anil Kapoor. As for the rest of the cast, they were average at best.

Verdict: The film is likely to have a decent opening & will appeal to the teenagers who loves candy floss rom-coms. But even then it will struggle to make waves at the box office & the best that the producers could possibly expect is to break even. From my point of view, with hardly a coherent script on display it's nothing more than a waste of time. In short, give it a miss!!!

Rating: 1/5

Regards...Ben

This film proves that Bollywood has run out of ideas.

Jagjinder Joginder (Shahid Kapoor) is a handsome wedding planner with a pack of wet sawdust for brain, hired by an over-smart, unknown queen for her granddaughter's union with a shirtless jackass. The sweet-toothed bride's sister is Alia (Alia "Aila" Bhatt), an insomniac, out of the world princess whose mysterious absence of lineage is the only source of pride in her as she goes swimming at 4 in the morning and collects her father's animated dreams to stay alive. That Alia has finally found her prince in Jagjinder and would like him to make love to her while she tries to dream a dream munching on a banana is what forms a small part of the rest of the story. The remaining, bigger part is taken by Pankaj Kapur's idiocy, Sanjay Kapoor's ugly tomfoolery, and the writers's butterfly-infested vomit.

The film is basically a fairytale romance with ounces of unnecessary animation all over the place. Glittery butterflies coming out of Alia's dress and making Jagjinder throw away his cigarette, impulsive doses of songs because as it turns out both the central characters of the film cannot sleep at night, and blatant melodrama that is worse that Star Plus soaps - the film is filled with fillers like these.

Then there is a cameo by Karan Johar, and I was done for the day. I don't understand why talented actors like Shahid Kapoor and veterans like his father would sign a project which introduces the characters using ugly cartoons. Ridiculous jokes, mindless slapstick, and a shade of black-and-white fairytale is what all the film is about. Not one character is a real deal, and if we had with us Holden from J D Salinger's classic book "The Catcher in the Rye," he would only have one word collectively to describe the film and its tons of characters: PHONEY.

BOTTOM LINE: Do yourself a favor and skip Vikas Bahl's epic fail, Shaandaar, because in here, the characters stay awake so that we can catch some shuteye. The trailer is misleading; don't fall for it.

GRADE: F

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES (But, do you really want to?)

Its nothing but a huge 'MESS' ! And its even more heartbreaking that it comes from the director of Queen !