Jeez, it's been long since I made my first and promised to review movies in a unique way. I have no excuses for my tardiness, I have been trying to chase excellence by trying to review movies such as Gangubai Kathiawadi or Bhool Bhulaiya 2, movies whose reviews would gain me traction, but then I should have been just putting content out. So I apologise to you all and promise to be regular from now on.

So the first movie to be reviewed on Who Won Bollywood will be the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Shamshera.

Shamshera directed by Karan Malhotra of the Agneepath (2012) fame is set in the year 1871, it follows the story of Shamshera and later Balli (both played by Ranbir Kapoor) to bring their tribe the Khameran some respect within the society after they have wrongfully entrapped by Shudh Singh (Sanjay Dutt) as slaves for the British.

So there are some obvious Winners and Losers from this movie, so let's go through them

Winners

Ranbir Kapoor

4 years after his last release in the form oif Sanju, Ranbir is back with Shamshera. This movie really sheds his soft boy image seen in many of his previous ventures, it's a movie in which Ranbir has gone out of his comfort zone of the charming hero to someone who is rugged and more the "macho" man we have seen within South Indian cinema.

Ranbir as Shamshera though had more going for him, he was a leader who was seen as the saviour for the Khemeran while Balli is someone who is continuing what his father failed to complete.

The biggest winner of Shamshera has to be Ranbir Kapoor.

Cinematography

The opulence of Shamshera is clearly evident through the cinematography of the movie, the grand scale of everything is laid out well within the movie. From the horse riding scenes, to frame work of the movie.

The cinematography does manage to take you the olden times and focuses on the large mountain -- figuratively -- Balli has to climb to reach his end goal.

Losers

Vaani Kapoor

Vaani plays the role of Sona, Balli's love interest who is a dancer. The extent of her role is that much and honestly, it is a role the movie could have done without.

Sona doesn't fit into this movie which is set in 1871, while a lot of work has gone into costume design to make the characters feel like they are set in the late 1800s, Sona looks like someone who is closer to the current era of 2022 than she does in 1871, her costumes (the push up bra was invented 90 years after this movie is set) or mannerisms do not come across as someone in 1871.

None of this is Vaani's fault and has more to do with how the creative team decided to portray her and it was a very poor choice.

Sanjay Dutt

Shudh Singh was supposed to be the scary menacing villain like Kancha Cheena from Agneepath. Kancha Cheena was menacing, he was a villain you hated right from the very start, Shudh Singh is also someone you hate from the start, but there seems to be something missing when it comes to his execution of the role.

Sanjay Dutt does an alright job, but it is nothing out of the park like how he potrayed Kancha Cheena.

Karan Malhotra

Dirtector of movies like Agneepath and Brothers, Karan manages to bring in the emotions and makes you feel something when watching the movie, that's due to the deep investment he has created with the characters within the movie.

In Shamshera, the investment is there, he has undergone that effort to make you feel invested but the length of the second half makes you lose your emotional attachment to them and at the end when Balli finally avenges his father's death, the pay off seems very meh to say the least.

Shamshera had it's moments, but there was a lot of things which couldn't take this movie to another level.

So that's the first Who Won Bollywood? review, I have lots of other things on my mind but this is a start. Please do comment and let me know what you felt about this style of reviewing.