These are small mercies in a wildly inconsistent film that seesaws unevenly between charming and WTF! It’s especially disappointing coming from the very writers and director that gave us last year’s terrific Queen. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

…a non-stop barrage of stereotypes being played for laughs: rich Sindhi men and their love for living life large, grooms obsessed with their eight-and-a-half packs, limp-wrists and fat waists. Where’s the ‘shaan’ in all this?

It looks spiffy and there’s some gloss to like, but overall Shaandaar is pretty much — as Alia calls the fourth finger of each hand — useless.

…relies more on the youthful appeal of its lead actors than a tight screenplay. Sometimes, it pretends to raise an issue, but then shies away from dealing with it. Let me introduce you to the basic premise of the film which mistakes Sindhis for a community of money minded devils.

Dud characters in a stinking plot…

The film is largely unreal, exaggerated and a not-so-Shaandaar continuation of Bahl’s work.

As one of the characters quizzes, why must we do every thing out of necessity, why can’t few things done for the fun of it, Shaandaar is simply fun, fun, fun and frothy enough to pull it off.

While it does not live up to its title as a package, it fulfils much of the expectations that the audience might have from a film produced jointly by Karan Johar on the one hand and Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap on the other.

It brings together two different worlds and succeeds in striking a balance between the two. For that, and for much else, Shaandaar deserves hearty ovation.

Shaandaar has a fun plot. However in his attempt to spoof destination weddings of the bankrupt and the famous, Vikas Bahl, (who also directed that gem, Queen) forgot to take a script along.

“Shaandaar” has good locations, jazzy dance numbers and lots of glitz and shine, but if you break down the surface, what stands exposed is its completely vacant centre. It would be funny if it wasn’t such a tragic waste of talent.

Gatecrashing a Sindhi wedding would be more fun than spending time and money on this one.

Bahl’s scenes are seen falling flat most of the time, and he isn’t even able to whip out something to keep us captivated during the boring parts. He however succeeds in bringing out the best from his actors.

…is a feel good movie that will make you leave the cinema hall with a smile on your face, despite its flaws. It will mainly appeal to the youth who seem to be the target audience for the film.

There are a lot of good moments in ‘Shaandaar’ but they are not stringed together as seamlessly as they were in ‘Queen’. I guess, the crux of the issue is that the plot here is not as solid and cohesive as the Kangana starrer. In that sense, nothing feels repetitive in this film, our director shows a very indulgent side of his personality here as opposed to the restraint he had shown in his previous film.

Vikas Bahl should’ve done better with Shaandaar. The biggest mistake he makes is to not trust his actors. In scenes where he opts for animation, he should’ve just let Pankaj Kapur and Alia Bhatt do the magic. But he doesn’t. He chooses to rely on cheap frills. And no matter how much money you spend padding up gimmicks, they don’t work like the real thing.

This is neither Shaandaar nor zabardast. It’s just fluff!

Shaandaar isn’t entirely unbearable — at least it saves itself from descending to Welcome Back-level garbage status courtesy a few performances.

The story lacks imagination, the screenplay is shoddy and the dialogues unfunny. Some humour goes unlaughed at and rest goes undigested. For instance, there’s a scene where it is hinted that a respected business magazine takes money to put people on their covers, and another one when a young lad sets his grandma on fire.

Shaandaar is awfully written and indifferently directed enough to put you off destination weddings forever.

While the theme evidently lacks novelty, it was intriguing to see how director Vikas Bahl, who showcased glimpses of wedding fun in his spectacular ‘Queen’, pitched his second innings on a desi destination wedding.

With all this against them, it’s to the cast’s credit that Shaandaar isn’t unwatchable. Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt look gorgeous and do their best to keep you entertained with their easy delivery and sharp dance moves. However, the two are entirely unconvincing as a couple, unless love in 21st century India is made up of chaste distances and inane chatter.

Shaandaar is an entertaining film and will be loved by the youth, especially in the cities. It will emerge amply victorious at the box-office on the strength of youth patronage. Business in the good multiplexes will be excellent but that in the lesser multiplexes and less-maintained single-screen cinemas will be below the mark.

In essence, the story is told almost like a Disney musical. It is grand and looks beautiful. You might almost suspect that it could be Sooraj Barjayta at the helm. Nah, not quite!

Suffice to say that Shaandaar is no Queen. A fairytale warrants a happy ending. Sadly this one leaves us hungry for something more substantial. It visually stunning but unlike Queen this one isn’t for everyone. Go for it only if you are a Shahid-Alia fan.

A perfect recipe made out of crackling humour, love-teased cameo, family drama and a few ‘wake up’ moments of life. This brings us to the climax of the film which was the best. Oh what a ‘raita failau’ closure Bahl gives to the movie!

Sweet in parts, silly in parts- this film is exactly what the doctor ordered this festive season. A reminder that everyone- gay guys, street-smart orphans, illegitimate children, diffident men and fat girls- can get a happy ending. At least in films!

…isn’t so Shaandaar afterall. However, being a rom-com and in the name of Vikas Bahl, I recommend it to be watched at least ones.

Despite all that, watch this film this festive weekend because it’s been sometime since we saw a KJo embellishment onscreen.

For two hours, Shaandaar strains to entertain, throwing everything from animation to skydiving at the audience. Then, with around 20 minutes to go, Bahl seems to let go of the reins and everything careens out of control. The film ends on such a vague and uninspiring note, it feels like the director himself gave up on it.

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.

Undoubtedly, it is a mish-mash of ideologies, of film-making aesthetics. I cannot shake off the big question mark – why? Why would a perfectly sane director go about doing this? You can’t even call this experimentation because individually every thing that the film does has been done before. Maybe, true to the film’s theme – it was not a film, it was a business deal.

Director Vikas Bahl, best known for helming films like Queen and Chillar Party, has acquired a reputation for himself and unfortunately for him, people have expectations from this one. But unlike his previous ventures, this one lacks soul, sensitivity and a scriptwriter.

Unlike Queen, it doesn’t feel like a take-off from a lived reality. There are some honest moments between JJ and Alia and Alia and her father that make you go gooey but for rest of the time it floats between generic and farcical.

It’s surprising that Bahl, who gave us a touching comedy like Queen, could make a film that’s all sheen and no soul. But if you like grand Indian weddings, you may find yourself rooting for Shaandaar. For others, it’s not a happy ending.

With the kind of technical support it got, Shaandaar would have been a much better film if it had resisted the temptation of being too offbeat.

Shaandaar does not meet up to the expectations. If you are expecting something extraordinary from Bahl’s latest venture, you will leave the cinema halls with dashed hopes.

Must watch movie people! Shaandaar is everything that you need this weekend, so don’t miss watching it in the theaters with your loved ones by your side!

The film tries to get all preachy about fat people, that everyone has feelings and all that. But the same film also made a string of gay-fashion-designer-rich-blingy-show-off-Sindhis-small-eyed-Chinese-Japanese jokes. It’s then a trifle hard to take this movie seriously.

It is great to watch, enjoyable in parts, a treat for romantics who finally get a film that is more than trials and tribulations of love but it never gives you the heady high of mushrooms and pot brownies. Shaandaar isn’t all that Shaandaar but is a breezy, feel-good entertainment that will soon in future will be counted as comfort-cinema. Bahl deserves to be applauded for creating newer tangents to deliver on and not replicating what already exists. Until next time, dream on!

The 146-minute movie proceeds in a jerky and slapdash fashion, and only a few sequences hit the mark. Most of the comedy seems to be in the form of one big private joke that does not travel beyond the borders of the set.

Watch this one only if you are a die hard fan of Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt or if you have nothing better to do this weekend.

As a film, it works overall despite the flawed screenplay and the overdone gimmicks like animation, excessive VFX and DI and what-have-you. Somewhere in the confusion, director Vikas Bahl, the man who made two landmark films, “Chillar Party” (with a co-director) and “Queen,” wants to tell a different story in a tried-and-tested genre and ends up telling it decently.

…we’ve seen it impersonating so many Indian properties on screen over the years that it now feels more like a party plot in Thane.