Directed by : Rohit Dhawan 

Hum gareebo ke paas ek hi cheez thi - dukh. Woh bhi tum ameero ne le liya. 

Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon in a still from 'Shehzada'

Spoilers ahead... 


Bantu has been living life of a servant's son for 25 years until by accident he finds out that his father Valmiki (Paresh Rawal) actually isn't his real father but he rather belongs to a millionaire rich family for whom Valmiki works i.e Jindals - Randeep (Ronit Roy), his wife Yashoda (Manisha Koirala), his son Raj (Ankur Rathee) and father-in-law Aditya (Sachin Khedekar). Will Bantu reveal Valmiki's lie to the Jindals or rather keep quiet and continue on living the life he lives ? 

Not seen the remake and the story partially reminds me of old 80s era (the part where at birth kids are replaced intentionally or not), and partially with 90s movies like Govinda's Hero No.1 (where he would try to sort out all the issues the family members are facing). The former part is not utilised much in the narrative, and the latter felt happens too easily to my liking. 

There's just no emotional connect to any character in the Jindal family which is sad because there's the trio of excellent actors - Ronit Roy, Manisha Koirala and Sachin Khedekar who are totally wasted here. 

I think I prefer Kartik Aaryan of low budget movies (Pyaar ka Punchnaama, Akaashvani) over this Kartik Aaryan (Shehzada, Bhool Bhulaiyaa). He may have provided some laughs in these movies but they are very far and few, in straight words I would say its too early for him to do such lead roles with perfection or efficiency that demand you to shine over an average written script. The action scenes felt okay, would rather prefer him to do more such roles before I dismiss him as action hero. In the comedy scenes at places he actually was reminding me of Varun Dhawan. 

Rajpal Yadav is fun to watch in the only scene he gets in the movie. Paresh Rawal is okay, you expect more from him but its just a non-likeable character. Infact if the tone of the movie wasn't comical, there was a case of him going more grey in this role that would had worked better. I would have liked him team up with Raj who otherwise felt too childish in behavior. 

The only part that I enjoyed was the one involving Kriti Sanon who looks gorgeous as always and I feel Kriti-Kartik share very good chemistry (despite a very silly way to get them in love) which is a pity because the screenplay has Kriti missing for most of the 2nd half. The songs also while not chartbusters level and also poorly placed (but would you complain if the movie isn't working), were pleasant to the ears specially 'Munda sona hoon main'. While reason to compose 'Character Dheela 2.0' is a huge mystery for me, neither the story has Bantu who plays playboy nor Kartik has such personality in real life, just shows the lack of originality these days when a remake film requires another film's song to be remaked. 

Overall, Shehzada is just another mess of a remake from south, that even with some other actor casted in lead role won't have made any difference. 

My Rating : 3.5/10