Shershaah Review: Bland and Predictable!

Shershaah is a 2021 Hindi-language biographical drama based on the life of Param Vir Chakra awardee and Indian Army Captain Vikram Batra. The movie stars Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani in the primary roles, with Shiv Pandit, Nikitin Dheer, Shataf Figar playing the supporting roles. Now, first off, I want to make clear that my criticism of the film is only directed towards its writing, presentation, and overall quality, it is not intended or does not pass any judgment on the brave soldiers of the 1999 war or their personal lives.

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Recounting all the major life episodes of Vikram Batra, Shershaah takes us through his childhood and then to his college days, where he falls in love with his then-girlfriend, Dimple. And finally, his Army days where he gets acknowledged for his bravery and stubbornness. Within the 135-minute, the film packs in a ton of emotions and conventional patriotic drama that you’ve seen and witnessed a million times before.

So what’s new in Shershaah? Well, in the three hours I spent watching the film (had to take a break in between, I’m a human after all), I did not feel or witness anything new. A young kid determined about his aspirations, a teenager falling head over heels for his college sweetheart, and a brave and mentally tough soldier ready to die for his country are commendable attributes on any given day.

But, when you put these things together for a film in the most standard way possible that provides no originality or some unpredictability factor, the entire film becomes a chore to get through. Especially when similar movies with comparable subjects get released every year. It’s the same thing over and over again, it’s like missionary position every single night.

On the other hand, Shershaah does impress when it comes to delivering loud and bombastic action scenes. The sound design and editing by Sohel Sanwari and well-choreographed battle sequences by Stefan Richter and Sunil Rodrigues blended well together and contributed to providing that rich cinematic feel.

Moving on to the performances, Sidharth Malhotra did try to make the best out of what he’s offered, and his character had a lot more to offer in terms of emotion and drama when compared to the one he played in one of the worst movies I’ve seen in recent times, Aiyaary. Kiara Advani yet again plays that traditional love interest we’ve seen her play a few times before. And there is nothing worth mentioning in regards to her character and performance.

Overall, Karan Johar keeps chasing these trends, especially in recent times. He saw the success of Kabir Singh and went ahead to buy the Hindi remake rights of Dear Comrade (another Vijay Deverakonda film). He knew that South Indian remakes are a hot commodity and produced Simmba, and now after the tremendous success of URI, he financed a war film inspired by real-life incidents and characters in Shershaah.

However, with Shershaah, the entire concept of making an intriguing film is thrown out of the window, and instead, I got to watch a bland, entirely predictable, and run-of-the-mill biographical drama that failed to concoct any sort of emotion out of me. From Hello Charlie to Sherni, Toofan, and now Shershaah, Amazon Prime Video got that Jeff Bezos money, but their neighbor, Netflix, keeps winning by providing quality content.

‘Shershaah’ Rating – 2/5

Images via Amazon Prime Video