Shehzada movie review: It should be a crime to make such films in 21st century

It should be a crime to make certain films in the 21st century. And a film where a boy (would you call Kartik Aaryan a man, think seriously) turns out good simply because his genetics are originally of a rich family, even if he had been swapped at birth into a clerk’s abode — as opposed to his counterpart who never really rises above his poor clerk family genes despite living in privilege, should surely qualify.

Particularly when the clerk who is instrumental in this baby swap is called, only and only, Valmiki. He does this out of all kinds of wrong reasons, and has almost no redeeming feature. Do they not know how wrong this is on all levels, or they just don’t care?

Kartik Aaryan plays the lead role in Shehzada.

The rich Jindals in contrast, who have lost their Shehzada unknowingly to Valmiki, are nice enough people — even if they do treat old retainer Valmiki pretty shittily. The filmmakers even splurge on acting talent when it comes to the Jindals, putting Sachin Khedekar (the patriarch), Manisha Koirala (his daughter) and Ronit Roy (his son-in-law), all in that corner which they clearly care more for.

And then there is Kriti Sanon, a hotshot lawyer for some reason who never sees the inside of a courtroom but does add some good looking gloss to the mess. She flits in and out of the Jindal world as a potential match for their good-for-nothing son (the very same baby, originally Valmiki’s, now living the rich life). This poor brat, Raj, has so little to do after his foreign degree that he drives a toy car around the house.

There is a villain other than Valmiki (Paresh Rawal), and he is someone who wants to do some bad things using the Jindal cargo ships, which the Jindals absolutely won’t allow. The man, with a killer umbrella for a weapon, is left very, very angry, and very, very snarly.

Even if the film was not called Shehzada, Kartik Aryan would have made it all come out right. But since it is called that, he does this being both badass and Bawarchi (remember that Rajesh Khanna character who used more than food to make families come together). And Aryan doesn’t even have to change a hair strand from his usual loud, silly, bedraggled look.

Only Koirala and Roy come out of this with some dignity intact. That’s more than can be said about the audience.