Shamshera

Shamshera is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language period action drama film directed by Karan Malhotra and produced by Aditya Chopra. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor in a dual role, alongside Sanjay Dutt, Vaani Kapoor, Ronit Roy, and Saurabh Shukla. It follows the captivity of an oppressed warrior tribe during the British Raj.

Shamshera was released on 22 July 2022, and received mixed-to-negative reviews with criticism towards the story, screenplay, direction, and soundtrack, although Kapoor's and Dutt's performances were praised. It emerged as a box-office disaster.

Plot

1896: Balli is a tribesman from the Khameran tribe, who aspires to become a cop where he is asked to provide a test, to a conniving Indian cop named Shudh Singh. Shudh Singh asks him to beat a child to prove his worth, but Balli refuses and takes the child's place and bears the punishment. That night, Balli learns about his father Shamshera's past.

1871: Shamshera is a Khameran tribesman, who along with his people was oppressed by the people of Kaza because of caste and status discrimination. Due to this, Shamshera counterattacks and pillages the kingdom, which leads to Kaza, creating a fearful reputation against the Khamerans. The kings and the wealthy men of the empire seek the help of the British to drive away the Khameran tribe from their village forest. The British accept the deal in exchange for 5000 gold coins.

The British attack the Khameran tribe, but Shamshera and the tribal people fight valiantly and the British flee. Shamshera receives a message that their tribe could live peacefully and regain their lost respect if they promised to stop plundering Kaza and move to a fortress outside the city premises. Shamshera and his men arrive at the forest where they realize that it is a trap led by Shudh Singh, and are captured where they are tortured mercilessly. Shamshera is told by the British to provide 10,000 gold coins, in exchange for sparing the Khameran tribe.

Realizing that the deal would be difficult to achieve inside the fortress. Shamshera forms a plan to help the tribe escape from the fortress, but to no avail where he tells his wife about his plan to frame himself as a traitor and also tells her to cook-up a story to save the tribe from getting killed. Shamshera tries to escape by climbing the wall of the fortress where the officers-in-charge spots Shamshera and shoots him, leaving Shamshera wounded and later getting hanged by Shudh Singh. Believing that Shamshera is a traitor, the tribe develops a hatred against him, thus leaving the truth to be buried.

1896: After learning the truth, a bird saves him from death and Shamshera appears as a Ghost. Balli fakes his death and escapes from the fortress with the help of Shamshera's trusted ally Pir Baba. When Shamshera decided to move to the fortress, a few Khamerans decided to stay back, where they are now residing in a town named Nagina, and had camouflaged their identities, doing all petty jobs in the town for a living and they were waiting for Shamshera, as he would come and help them regain their lost respect and dignity. As advised by Pir Baba, and with the help of a local dancer named Sona, Balli starts looting the rich people of Kaza and refers himself as Shamshera.

The British General is worried about the new Shamshera. Shudh Singh invites the General for his wedding, where the General deduce that Shamshera would come to the wedding. Balli is able to steal the gold from Shudh Singh's wedding, but his youngest gang member is shot by the sadistic cop. With the information given by a gang member of Balli, Shudh Singh conducts a crackdown and confiscates all the gold that the gang had stolen until now, where Sona (who is pregnant with Balli's child) is caught by Shudh Singh, where he attempts to kill her and Balli's child, but the General stops him.

Though heartbroken, Balli plans to steal the Queen's Crown, which is supposed to arrive at Kaza. Despite tight security, Balli steals the Queen's crown and puts a blot on the British General's reputation. Balli makes a deal with the General to free the Khamerans, in exchange for the Queen's Crown. The General agrees and Balli returns with the surviving members of his crew to the Kaza Fortress. Shudh Singh kills the British forces, and places the blame on Balli, and takes the credit for returning the crown to the queen, but forgets about placing the blame on Khamerans.

The Khamerans learn about Shamshera's sacrifice from Pir Baba, where they get enraged and breaks the fortress's gates to fight alongside Balli. They slaughter the police force. Balli fights Shudh Singh, and he hangs Shudh Singh in the same way, in which he hanged Shamshera. Balli leaves the Queen's Crown to the British General, due to him having saved Sona's life. The Khamerans ride alongside Balli, and are hopeful that they will be able to live a dignified life hereafter.

Cast

• Ranbir Kapoor in a dual role as
  • Shamshera, Balli's father, a Khameran tribesman and leader of their resistance against the monarchs of Kaza.
  • Balli, Shamshera's son, known to be a risk taker, has a child like personality, and is an acrobatic thief.
• Sanjay Dutt as Daroga Shuddh Singh, the psychopathic warden of the Khameran's concentration camp and ally to the British, whom he eventually betrays.
• Vaani Kapoor as Sona, Balli's wife and skilled dancer. She later has his son.
• Saurabh Shukla as Doodh Singh, a close friend of Shamshera and active member of his resistance.
• Ronit Roy as Pir Baba, Shamshera's deputy and a skilled warrior.
• Iravati Harshe as Shamshera's wife, Balli's mother
• Craig McGinlay as Colonel Freddy Young, the English colonel who's tasked with apprehending Bali.
• Saurabh Kumar as Chooha
• Chitrak Bandhopadyay as Raasho
• Mahesh Balraj as Upreti
• Rudra Soni as Pitamber, a young aspiring resistance warrior who's killed by Singh.
• Prakhar Saxena as Bhura, a member of the resistance who betrays them out of fear.
• Nagesh Salvan as Dada
• Vijay Kaushik as Gulfi
• Gauransh Sharma as Keshu
• Paran Murmu as Paran

Production

Development

The original story for Shamshera was created by Khila Bisht, a college friend of Neelesh Misra who co-wrote it. Shamshera officially launched in May 2018 by Yash Raj Films through a motion poster, revealing Ranbir Kapoor as the titular character Shamshera. The film marked Kapoor's comeback to films, following Sanju (2018).

Casting

Sanjay Dutt was cast in a pivotal role, and Vaani Kapoor was signed to play the female lead. To prepare her role, Vaani Kapoor took professional training in Kathak. Kapoor portrays a dancer.

Filming

Principal photography commenced in December 2018 and concluded in September 2020. For the film, a massive fort was built at Film City, Goregaon, requiring 2 months of preparation and the effort of nearly 300 workers.

Music

Shamshera's soundtrack consists of seven songs composed by Mithoon, with lyrics written by Mithoon, Karan Malhotra and Piyush Mishra.

Release

Theatrical

Shamshera released theatrically on 22 July 2022. Originally scheduled for a theatrical release on 31st July, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then rescheduled to 25 June 2021. Due to the second wave of the pandemic, the release was postponed to 18 March 2022, then was again delayed due to the Omicron variant spreading at the time. It released on 22 July 2022. The film was released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and in IMAX theatres.

Home media

The digital streaming rights of the film were acquired by Amazon Prime Video. The film began streaming on Prime Video from 19 August 2022 in Hindi and dubbed versions in Tamil and Telugu.

Controversy

The film faced online controversy at the time of its theatrical release, by some right-wing Hindu nationalists, for portraying the primary antagonist - portrayed by Sanjay Dutt - as an orthodox upper-caste Hindu, labelling it as anti-Hindu. It was further subjected to a lawsuit for plagiarism by Bikramjeet Singh Bhullar who alleged that the film was based on his story Kabu na chhadein khet; this delayed the release of the film on OTT platforms. The Delhi High Court allowed its release online in the interim to enable Yash Raj Films to fulfill its prior contractual obligations.

Reception

Box office

Shamshera earned ₹10.25 crore at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected ₹10.50 crore. On the third day, the film collected ₹11 crore, taking a total domestic opening weekend of ₹31.75 crore.

As of 11 August 2022, the film grossed ₹50.57 crore (US$6.0 million) in India and ₹13.01 crore (US$1.5 million) overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of ₹63.58 crore (US$7.5 million).

Critical response

Shamshera received mixed to negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4/10.