O’Romeo Cast/Actors: Shahid Kapoor, Triptii Dimri, Nana Patekar, Avinash Tiwary, Tamannaah Bhatia, Disha Patani, Farida Jalal and Vikrant Massey
O’Romeo Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
O’Romeo Production House: Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
O’Romeo Movie Release Date: 13 February 2026
O’Romeo Movie Available On: Theatrical Release (likely to be released on Amazon Prime Video OTT Platform)
O’Romeo Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
O’Romeo Movie Runtime: 2h 57m
O’Romeo Movie Review:
The take-off is like Dhurandhar. As Ustara alias Romeo (Shahid Kapoor) cuts, kills and spills blood all over the place, there’s a peppy ‘Dhak dhak karne laga’ in the background.
From a conversation between Jayesh bhai (Nana Patekar), his baap in the gangster business, and the ‘kutiya’ (Shahid), you gather that Romeo is on the run from big bad daddy Jalal (Avinash Tiwary) for murdering his brother.
From a spate of energetically executed dances where he breaks into pelvic moves with crude references made to women in the oldest profession in the world, it’s established that Romeo has the swagger of an unremorseful killer-gangster. BTW, ‘Paan ki dukaan’ is catchy.
The tribute to the bard stays restricted to the title. There’s no Juliet but there is a Julie (Disha Patani). Vishal rhymes her with mooli when Romeo goes to visit her.
Until roza-observing, weeping widow Afshan (Triptii Dimri) enters, seeking revenge on Jalal and the men who killed her accountant-husband (Vikant Massey). The Romeo in the hero is awakened. No more wh*r*s for him.
From the news of the day that Mayawati has been sworn in as the first Dalit CM of Uttar Pradesh and Milind Soman has been upbraided for posing nude, you know we’re in the 80s and 90s. And Vishal plays time-appropriate music in the background. There’s ‘Saanson ki zaroorat nahi hai…’ at one point.
Not that the period matters for Vishal Bhardwaj’s revenge and gangster spree could’ve happened any year as it moves mindlessly from killings to killings, sometimes Mumbai, sometimes Spain.
Jalal’s mansion-den is in Spain where he presides over a large arena, even jumps in to play matador and spear a bull to death. Wife Rabia (Tamannaah Bhatia), the love of his life, has lost it after losing her child in the womb. Jalal the butcher will bludgeon anyone who allows even a drop of water to soil her paintings.
By placing his love and revenge story amongst gangsters, Vishal makes it three hours of filthy abuse a la Omkara, gangster camaraderie a la Satya and blood-spill a la Tarantino.
But this is no Tarantino at work.
An overstretched climax in the arena compounds the exhaustion of pointlessness.
There is one new touch that comes with Vishal’s gift for music. Inspector Pathare (Rahul Deshpande), a part of Jalal’s goon brigade, renders his dialogues like a classical music maestro.
There is also a good line like ‘Vermillion under a burkha’ but it’s overwhelmed by the waves of crudity all around.
Shahid Kapoor with his large reserves of energy, is in peak form. Triptii Dimri is pretty, better as a wife/girlfriend than as a vengeful killing machine. Nana Patekar and Farida Jalal are wasted while Aruna Irani is still saucy.
For most of the time, Bhardwaj is like a repressed school boy given sudden freedom to spew abuse and spill blood as much as he likes. Peeing is woven into dialogues like a punctuation mark. Bhardwaj even thinks a stammering lawyer who stutters ‘Parathe’ instead of ‘Pathare’ is humour. Grow up, Vishal.
O’Romeo – Watch Or Not?: It’s not my kind of cinema. You decide if blood-spill makes your day.
O’Romeo Movie Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
O’Romeo Official Trailer:
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