Shehzada, the Hindi remake of the Allu Arjun -starrer Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (AVPL), begins like a crime thriller – one stormy night, a hospital hall reverberates with the cries of a baby.
Valmiki (Paresh Rawal) receives the news of his son’s birth and soon learns that his boss and former friend Randeep Nanda (Ronit Roy) is also the father of a son.
Valmiki swapped the two children, committing more than one crime in the process. Their son is raised in luxury by Randeep and his wife Yashu Nanda (Manisha Koirala) as Raj (Ankur Rathi). So there Valmiki raised his son Bantu (Karthik Aryan) in limited means.
Shahzana is a remake of South’s film AVPL (Ala Vaikunthpurramuloo). The internal struggles of these two kids Bantu and Raj are well shown in AVPL. Bantu is charming, courageous, and doesn’t shy away from a fight but yet, his whole life is surrounded by hatred of his father. The Raj, on the other hand, is coddled to the point of incompetence and bogged down by the pressures of its legacy.
In Shehzada, Raj is childish to such an extent that even his genuine complaint looks like whining as if he had asked for a Cartier and got a Rolex as a gift. His role is written purely to compare and make fun of Bantu’s masculinity.
The adapted screenplay is credited to director Rohit Dhawan, while the original story and screenplay is penned by AVPL director Trivikram Srinivas.
The story sidelines everyone who is not a Bantu. But still, Manisha Koirala, Paresh Rawal, and Ronit Roy all stand out as they are all seasoned actors who somehow know how to nail their roles.
Sunny Hinduja also acts as a gangster whose business is going down due to Randeep. While he tries his best to be a terrifying personality, he too is sidelined for the lead.
Kartik Aaryan seems right in his comfort zone, pulling off one action scene after another with ease.
The name of Kriti Sanon’s character is Samara, who is a big lawyer. Samara is never seen inside the courtroom and this character has been coined only as a love interest.
However, Samara vanishes from the film as soon as her work is done. She does typical female Bollywood things like doing a job she can’t be seen doing, like group yoga, group-drive-a-bicycle-with-flowers-in-the-basket-ing.
The plot has more holes than Tom and Jerry’s Jerry Cheese.
If one has to look for a silver lining, the film has everything an entertainment film does – if you are fully prepared to leave logic at home. But how much does it really matter? personally? not much.
