Take a blank canvas. Daub some ‘Orphan Annie’ paint on it. Add a little dash of ‘Cinderella’. Come closer home and borrow from that old durable ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’, and the much more recent ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’. And gild the whole with glitter and gold. What ‘Shaandaar’ is trying to do is clear: reinvent beloved fairytales with the help of winsome stars, but ends up being a blinding mix of everything with nothing of its own to boast of.
One day, little Alia(Alia Bhatt, going by her own name) is brought home by Papa(Pankaj Kapur), a man ruled by his money-grubbing mommy(Sushma Seth) and wife. Alia grows up not knowing where she came from, not knowing how to sleep and perchance to dream. And then her Prince Charming(Shahid Kapoor) rides into her life, and everything changes.