A Vishal Bhardwaj and Shahid Kapoor collab after so many years, sounds fun? Also with a star cast that includes- Triptii Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, and Farida Jalal only adds to this excitement. Some fun songs, action, and at the core, a love story, what more does one want? A solid story and characters that evoke emotions! And these important ingredients are missing big time from O’Romeo. In fact, the film is an addition to the already exhausted high-octane action and gangster drama genre. Read our review.
Plot
Ustara (Shahid Kapoor) is a hitman and is loyal to an IB officer Ismail Khan (Nana Patekar). The loyalty exists because Ismail had once saved his life although Ustara is evidently tired of working for him. Afsha (Triptii Dimri) offers Ustara a deal to kill four people including Jalal (Avinash Tiwary), a powerful gangster. Ustara refuses to accept it. Cut to, there’s a backstory of Afsha’s life and why she is full of vengeance for these people. Vikrant Massey is seen in the role of her husband Mehmoob. Farida Jalal plays Ustara’s grandmother. Gradually, Ustara falls deeply in love with Afsha which is not reciprocated as she just focuses on one purpose which is revenge, that also becomes Ustara sole motive in life, eventually. All the hows and whys build the the plot of this film.
What Doesn’t Work?
Almost a three-hour long film, and yet no solid story or characters. In fact, finding one requires more effort than your relationship. The film is not only slow and exhausting, but the lack of any interesting plot or even sub-plot makes it boring too. As if the answer to a missing plot are just violence and songs. Neither the love story is felt nor the revenge makes us angry. And therefore, O’Romeo fails to fulfil any sort of purpose that it attempts to make. Well, even the attempt feels like a lazy one in this case. Gore violence, characters with no depth, number of songs at intervals, plot twists with no shock value and of course the hero syndrome, O’Romeo is an addition to the films of this genre. A genre that is very much “popular” in Hindi cinema currently. The film continues to follow the template that we have seen enough of.
I was looking forward to Avinash Tiwary’s character but it’s a poorly written antagonist, that precisely demands a caricaturist performance from the actor. Afsha’s character lacked clarity, and Ustara’s character has no interesting traits, or rather nothing new to offer. I am still questioning the existence of some cameos in the film. The one that made some sense to me was of Mehmoob (Vikrant Massey).
To top it all, there is a questionable plot twist towards the climax which only made me laugh at the silliness of this film. But at least, there’s one emotion that I could feel. The dialogues are not fun. O’Romeo neither becomes an engaging gangster drama nor does it become a gut-punching story of two lovers.
Performances
Not the best, but Shahid Kapoor and Triptii Dimri have delivered decent performances. Both the actors are well-versed with their crafts and it shows on the screen. Nana Patekar is natural and provides some effortless gags in the film. Farida Jalal, Vikrant Massey, Tamannaah Bhatia and Disha Patani have also done their respective parts well.
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What’s To Admire?
What I actually liked in O’Romeo were some action sequences with the BGM. They were shot really well, especially the one where Ustara fights inside a theatre, with Madhuri Dixit’s ‘Dhak Dhak’ playing in the background. The sequence was visually very pleasing. Another simple but effective action sequence included Triptii Dimri.
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Verdict
Vishal Bhardwaj’s O’Romeo has nothing new to offer. It’s currently running in theatres.