Shamshera Trailer: Apart From Vaani Kapoor, Are There No Women In This Film?

The trailer of Ranbir Kapoor starrer Shamshera was released on June 24. Set in 1871, the film follows a dacoit's journey to save his tribe from British oppressors, thus fulfilling the legacy of his father.

Shamshera is a period action film directed by Karan Malhotra and produced by Yash Raj Films. Malhotra and Chopra also serve as writers for the film alongside Piyush Mishra and Ekta Pathak Malhotra.

Set in the fictitious city of Kaza, the film follows the story of a dacoit tribe and their struggle for independence after being enslaved and exploited by an authoritarian general.

Actor Ranbir Kapoor stars as the titular character Shamshera and is joined by Sanjay Dutt and Vaani Kapoor. Dutt plays the role of Daroga Shuddh Singh, a ruthless and cruel general who wreaks havoc on the dacoit tribe to appease the British. Vani Kapoor plays the role of a dancer named Sona. It was previously reported that she took Kathak classes to prepare for her role as a dancer in the film. In a statement, Vani Kapoor said that Karan Malhotra, the film’s director wanted her to adopt a traditional Indian dance form and “break from the western style to do justice to the choreography”.

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The supporting cast for the film also includes actors Ashutosh Rana, Tridha Choudhary, Pitobash Tripathy, Ronit Roy, and Saurabh Shukla.

The film will have a theatrical release in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages on July 22.

Shamshera Trailer: Where are the women?

The trailer of Shamshera heavily focusses on its male cast. There is Ranbir Kapoor in a double role as both father and son, there is Sanjay Dutt as the antagonist and then there are the dacoits who work with Shamshera. The only woman who gets a decent amount of screen time in the trailer is Vaani Kapoor but her bit too is restricted largely to romancing the hero. So where are the women of Kaza?

There is a voiceover by a woman about how Kapoor's dacoit avatar has the blood of Shamshera in his veins, but we are never introduced to the character on screen. From the looks of it Shamshera seems to be another male-centric film that glorifies its hero and provides little to no space for its women characters to flourish. We hope that the film does prove us wrong.