Vishal Bhardwaj. Shahid Kapoor. Vikrant Massey. Avinash Tiwary. Trithi Dimri. On paper this is a dream. In practice, O Romeo is a genuinely frustrating watch, and not because the talent is not there. It absolutely is. The problem is the writing.
It had been a rough start to the year at cinemas. Not many films worth the trip. O Romeo was the one I was waiting for. And then you sit there for two and a half hours and the magic just does not arrive. Shahid Kapoor gives it everything. He is fabulous, as he usually is when he has real material. The music, as you expect from Bhardwaj, is great. But the writing does not have enough power. The story does not earn its runtime.
This is the director who gave us Haider, Omkara, Kaminey. The bar is always going to be high. And O Romeo does not clear it. Two and a half hours is a long time to sit with a script that keeps losing its grip.
Wait for OTT. The performances are worth watching, especially Shahid, but the film does not hold together the way it should.
