Movie Review: Prashant Shukla
Plot:
Set during the time of the Tughlaq Empire’s rule over India, Kesari Veer tells the tale of Hamirji Gohil and his brave clan, who fought against the ruthless invader Zafar Khan to protect the great Somnath Temple from destruction.
The Performances
It’s one thing to act in front of a camera, and quite another to perform live – Kesari Veer leans towards the latter, and it doesn’t work. Sooraj Pancholi, as Hamirji, lacks the radiance and purity needed for a character of such god-like stature. Suniel Shetty feels out of touch and slips into his LOC: Kargil mode at times. Akanksha Sharma’s dialogue delivery and expressions are completely off, making her performance feel inconsistent and misplaced. Finally there’s Vivek Oberoi…..he just says ‘KAAFIR’ after every 5 minutes. That ‘s it.
The Writing:
The film runs for 2 hours and 41 minutes – and you’ll feel every millisecond of it. Writers Karan Chauhan and Shitiz Srivastava had a genuinely moving true story in their hands, but the path they chose to tell it is almost unbearable. I wasn’t in the writing room, but what unfolded on screen made it painfully clear: they opted for an over- stylized, superhero-esque, fantasy-driven approach to a story that desperately called for a serious, grounded, and raw treatment. You want to respect the real-life hero, but the caricatured, borderline campy portrayal is so jarring, it makes you wonder – why touch this story at all?
Costumes & Music:
The background score and songs are completely generic and forgettable – not a single piece leaves an impression or enhances the storytelling.The costumes and makeup are equally careless. Akanksha Sharma, playing a character from the Tughlaq era, inexplicably has golden highlights in her hair, while Suniel Shetty’s beard is so perfectly trimmed and styled, it looks like he walked straight out of a modern-day salon. The lack of historical authenticity is laughable, and any sense of seriousness the film aimed forjs thrown entirely out the window.
VFX:
There’s really nothing much to say about the VFX; it’s just bad. The FX elements are poorly rendered, and the CGI props are blatantly obvious. The green screen backgrounds are so unconvincing, they give you flashbacks of low-budget TV serials. It honestly feels like the compositing team was working on a cracked version of NUKE that wouldn’t let them integrate more than three elements at a time. In short, it’s a mess.
Final Verdict:
In conclusion, Kesari Veer is bad. That’s all. Not recommended at all
