A new HUGE scale Bollywood blockbuster has hit theaters — Shamshera — but this time it is a slow and EPIC period piece.
Shamshera and Balli, both played by Ranbir Kapoor, are great center characters for this story and the way we start the story with actually being able to SEE Shamshera and then his impact on Balli, was a great story choice. The epic scale also definitely peaks in the first 20 minutes but that’s not a bad thing. They set up Shamshera as a legend, this myth, that can only be followed by his own blood Balli, and the final act does get right below the initial epic nature.
This movie was also heavily impacted by the pandemic as it started shooting in 2018 and didn’t wrap until September 2020. The release was also delayed a lot but it might have actually helped. In terms of replicating a formula, many South Indian movies have taken a grand and massive nature to their action films, Shamshera does the same. A recent success in ‘tollywood’ has been RRR, being the second highest grossing tollywood movie, EVER.
With that being said – Does Shamshera use that formula well? Yes, but it falls short in other places. The story itself, though not historically accurate, does get pretty grand. The initial comparison, especially in 2022 is RRR, and the difference comes in regarding the use of the films’ grand nature. RRR uses a story that intertwines the action whereas Shamshera’s action is intertwined with the story. Shamshera is also more of a period piece, it has a lot more elements (realistic and fantastical) that is balances and in those regards the action works really well.
In addition to the action, the cinematography and choreography are also really well integrated. The cinematography is really near perfect and fight choreography is some of the best of 2022. On the other hand though the dance choreography is well done, the musical set pieces themselves interrupt the story, lead to uneven pacing, and undermine almost all of the tension in those moments, without giving away any spoilers, after the intermission there is a song that completely drives away all tension and creates a VERY slow start to the epic finale.
The pacing overall was very off and that is due to the musical sets but also the story is very grand without many identifying factors for parts. The flow between scenes and sets feels forced and random. This works for the entire first half because we aren’t as connected to the main characters but as time goes on, the more time that passes (that we don’t see) the lower the tension goes. That is the biggest issue with the second half, it is all over the place.
Many have complained about the lackluster second half but it did a great job of being an epic finale. The first half is still more cohesive and more polished as a story but the second half relies a lot less on out main characters, but the antagonists making moves so it slows down a lot. The story itself, thought at times falls short character-wise, is a great epic story.
Other than Balli, every character feels like they ‘work for the plot’. The villain, played by Sanjay Dutt, is your basic, British villain, and he is acted perfectly – menacing, scary, and not afraid of anything – but at the end of the day he is a basic character, nothing too special in terms of a motivation. Same goes for Balli’s love interest played by Vaani Kapoor. She gives a great performance, but her character can only go so far and her character specifically feels like she is just there for forced tension.
Overall Shamshera is a massive period piece that takes the action and story to such a high level but at times too high. It leaves behind all realism with character choices and ideas leaving a lot of choices to just follow the plot.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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About Shamshera
In the fictitious city of Kaza, a warrior tribe is imprisoned, enslaved and tortured by a ruthless authoritarian Shudh Singh. Shamshera is the a legend for his tribe who relentlessly fights for his tribe’s freedom and dignity.
