Shehzada MOVIE DETAIL

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 tosh. . 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. It leaves this man, with a killer umbrella for a weapon and some good clothes and cars, very, very angry, and very, very snarly.

Even if the film was not called Shehzada, Kartik Aaryan 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 Aaryan 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.