Top 5 'Shaandaar' reviews: What are critics saying about the Shahid-Alia starrer?

Vikas Bahl directed Shaandaar, starring Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor, Pankaj Kapur and Sanaa Kapoor, released on October 22. The director's debut film Queen was one of the biggest hits of 2014.

Here is what critics had to say about the director's second outing-

Firstpost: Shahid, Alia look great but this film is hardly fabulous

"Under normal circumstances, you'd think that when three of the four people credited with having written Queen join hands again, the film they'll make will be fun and clever. When they've been entrusted with a big budget and lavish settings, you'd expect a film that's fabulous. Shaandaar proves that these assumptions are wildly off-base. It turns out that the message that prefaced episodes of The X-Files were bang on the money: Trust no one.Shaandaar gives you fair warning that this film is anything but fabulous, right from its first scene.Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt look gorgeous and do their best to keep you entertained with their easy delivery and sharp dance moves. However, the two are entirely unconvincing as a couple, unless love in 21st century India is made up of chaste distances and inane chatter." Read the full review.

Indian Express: Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt film is a blinding mix of everything with nothing of its own to boast of

Rating: **

"Take a blank canvas. Daub some ‘Orphan Annie’ paint on it. Add a little dash of ‘Cinderella’. Come closer home and borrow from that old durable Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, and the much more recent Dum Laga Ke Haisha. And gild the whole with glitter and gold. What Shaandaar is trying to do is clear: reinvent beloved fairy tales with the help of winsome stars, but ends up being a blinding mix of everything with nothing of its own to boast of. The film is bloated with excess. Songs dressed up and going nowhere, saying nothing. Sequences meant to showcase actual planes, and flights of fancy, but looping no loops. The only one who leaves an impression in this crowded-yet-slack film is Sanah Kapur, the real-life half-sister of Shahid, who plays a bride being used as part of a ‘deal’ between two business families. She has a couple of strong scenes, and wears her weight well." Read the full review.

NDTV: The big fat Indian wedding on which Vikas Bahl’s Shaandaar hinges is as breezy and boisterous as any that has ever been conjured up by Bollywood

Rating: ***

"In Shaandaar, the free-wheeling qualities of a modern-day fable meet the flamboyant and filmi flights of a KJo romance.The director also throws in animated flashbacks (with a voiceover by Naseeruddin Shah) to accentuate the film’s fairy tale impulses. It has all the ingredients of a parable – an orphan princess trapped in a loveless home, a prince charming who flies in from nowhere, and a cranky old man who dotes on his daughter to the point of distraction.Despite the Karan Johar making an appearance to take good-natured digs at his own brand of entertainment, Shaandaar does not shy away from going the whole hog. Shaandaa r is a fun film that is infused with great charm, which in turn is enhanced by director Bahl’s panache for a light touch, an attribute that was on full show in Queen.While it does not live up to its title as a package, it fulfils much of the expectations that the audience might have from a film produced jointly by Karan Johar on the one hand and Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap on the other.it brings together two different worlds and succeeds in striking a balance between the two. For that, and for much else, Shaandaar deserves hearty ovation." Read the full review.

Mid day review

Rating: **

"What do you call a film that seems so dizzy-headed that it doesn't know where it is headed, or wait, perhaps so sure of itself that takes a strut towards that forbidden area of superiority complex? It takes two long hours (which feels longer) for one to gauge which category Shaandaar falls into. But by the end of it, you stop caring.The fairytale setting, though seen often in rom-coms set in England, is perfect with the said castle, yards of greenery around it and platters and platters of colourful cupcakes and other such goodies making the rounds. However, what is sorely missing is the magic that generally comes along with such settings and a romantic story woven around it.This film is supposedly a fairy tale with a quirky take. One would naturally expect dollops of delight, but ironically and disappointingly, Shaandaar chooses to kill us with clichés than charm us with its idiosyncrasies. The story lacks imagination, the screenplay is shoddy and the dialogues unfunny. Some humour goes unlaughed at and rest goes undigested." Read the full review.

Scroll: Only the title is magnificent in ‘Shandaar’​

"Vikas Bahl’s hopefully titled new movie is about as tidy as a jigsaw put together by an attention-deficit child: some bits fit together while others don’t, and the whole thing has patches of colour and brightness but an overall messy appearance.The 146-minute movie proceeds in a jerky and slapdash fashion, and only a few sequences hit the mark. Most of the comedy seems to be in the form of one big private joke that does not travel beyond the borders of the set.  The “Mehndi with Karan” sequence is supposed to send up Johar’s popular television chat show Koffee with Karan as well as his own grandiloquent movies. A clever idea but clumsily handled, like so much else in Shandaar. Shandaar is supposed to be a wicked, sly, irreverent and subversive stoner comedy that celebrates as well as sends up wedding movies, but like the characters who get intoxicated on a combination of actual brownies and actual mushrooms, it suffers from a literal-minded and often infantile treatment." Read the full review.