Shaandaar

Shaandaar is determined to show you that the romantic Hindi film is based on the nonsense writing genre. So when the insomniac, Alia (Alia Bhatt), takes a midnight swim, she kisses a frog called Ashok, who turns into another insomniac called Jagjinder (Shahid Kapoor). Alia then goes down ‘The Rabbit Hole’ and the movie turns into an ‘Alia in Wonderland’, so closely does it resemble the Lewis Carroll classic.

All the mad characters are there. There is the dowager, the matriarch of the Arora clan (Sushma Seth), who is arranging a marriage of convenience for her grand-daughter, to prevent the family from going broke. She is the ‘Queen of Hearts’, with ‘off with his head’ not far from her lips and everyone petrified of her.

The family of the ‘Queen of Hearts’ lives in a palace but is actually bankrupt. So a wedding is arranged with a Sindhi family called the Fundwanis, who will, of course, raise the necessary funds. The entire movie revolves around the arrangements of this much anticipated wedding. In between are the antics of Jagjinder, who turns out to be the wedding planner, Alia, who is a space cadet, her loving father (Pankaj Kapur), who is a bit dotty, and the other fundamentals in the Fundwani clan.

These activities include a Hatter’s tea party, when magic mushrooms and hash brownies make everyone hallucinate and see ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’. The movie continues on this general theme of fantasy, and some of it is quite entertaining, especially the animation sequences to illustrate the usual flashback episodes—an innovative idea.

However, with Alice in Wonderland, it was a specific nonsense genre that we read. With Shaandaar, the context of Hindi cinema turns the movie into something outlandish.

Nevertheless, it can be called an interesting film.

About The Author

Ajit Duara