Shamshera Thunder Lightning In A Cookie Jar

Shamshera

Starring Ranbir  &  Ranbir  Kapoor, Vani Kapoor, Ronit Roy Bose and Irawati Harshe, Sanjay Dutt

Directed  by Karan Malhotra

Rating: * ½

The horses from Raj Khosla’s 1971 hit  Mera Gaon Mera Desh  are back in business again after many  years, admittedly   a little tired.  But the  gallop is still  strong. Sadly there is not much here in Shamshera   for  the  horses  to trot  about . This is  a lamentably lame action film with characters  who seem to belong to a time when Laxmi Chhaya would tie the hero to the  nearest  lamppost and sing Maar diya jay ke  chhod diya jaye.

Shamshera has its own Laxmi Chhaya. Vaani Kapoor’s  gym-trained  body(not sure they had gyms in the  18^th century)  sways  sensuously   at various  villainous  celebrations where Ranbir Kapoor robs the rich of their gold  to feed  the underdogs.

  It’s all done in a tone of self-mockery that  never  quite  makes it into the  hall of  flames. The spark, sorry  to say, is missing. A semblance of order  is  desperately needed in the  soul-dead chaotic   universe  of  our protagonist  Balli who doesn’t seem  sure whether he  wants  to be Raj Kapoor in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai  or Sunil Dutt in Mujhe Jeene Do.

It’s a chaotic world  of legacy and  vendetta   with  characters  behaving as  if they had  recently discovered the medicinal  benefits  of  opium.

High on speed  but low on plotting and characterization Shamshera  bears  an uneasy  kinship to Rajamouli’s RRR  and  Prashanth Neel’s KGF. While some of the supporting cast specially  Irawati Harshe and  Ronit Roy Bose, takes  the  excursion into anarchic action  seriously, Ranbir Kapoor’s body language  suggests  he is more into the new millennium  than in the British Raj. As for Sanjay Dutt,why the  grotesque villainy  again so soon after  KGF?