O’ Romeo Review | A Lush Crime Epic That Slowly Unravels Under Its Own Excess

Vishal Bhardwaj steps away from his well-worn Shakespearean canvases, though the title winks at that lineage, to mount a tale of vendetta steeped in desire. The difficulty lies in harmonising these twin currents: the fusion of romance and retribution drives the narrative, yet their energies seldom align cohesively in the screenplay. When Bhardwaj collaborates with Gulzar and Shahid Kapoor, one anticipates the alchemy that shaped Haider (2014) and Kaminey (2009). With O Romeo! (2026), he summons the grimy temperament of the latter and the elegiac temperament of the former, fusing them into a spectacle that announces its bravado ardently. 

The result arrives drenched in style: swagger injected generously across frames, melodies stained with carnage and intertextual nods worn with brazen confidence. Bhardwaj revisits his preferred terrain of ethically ambiguous figures, intricate plotting and fatalistic mood, situating gang rivalries within an emotional architecture built on longing, remorse and fixation. The criminal milieu, though, becomes a laboratory for examining human frailty and compulsion rather than a mere arena for theatrics.

Drawn from a chapter in Hussain Zaidi’s Mafia Queens of Mumbai (2011), the narrative unfolds with measured patience in its opening stretch. Bhardwaj devotes time to shaping temperaments, cultivating ambience and allowing tension to ferment. Afshan (Triptii Dimri), seeks out Ustraa (Shahid Kapoor), a tattooed assassin notorious for slashing enemies with his razor. Her husband Mehboob, played in a fleeting appearance by Vikrant Massey, has been slain, reportedly by men linked to Dawood Ibrahim’s syndicate. Afshan requests Hussain Ustraa to school her in the craft of killing so she may eliminate Jalal and his cohorts. Ustraa feigns indifference, yet the widow’s composure unsettles him. Their association grows intimate as his affection deepens, while her resolve remains tethered to retribution. 

The drama charts the hostility between Ustraa and (Avinash Tiwary), even as Afshan advances toward her quarry. (Qais and Laila, which multiverse is this!) The trajectory of this uneasy partnership forms the spine of the film. Against Mumbai’s shadowed quarters, Bhardwaj composes a chronicle where passion and catastrophe entwine amid carnage and appetite. The ferocity is signalled in the protagonist’s very name, and Kapoor inhabits Ustraa with commanding assurance, recalling the volatility he displayed in Haider (2014). Three songs surface within the first hour, one of them the infectious Paan Ki Dukaan, which lingers in memory, though not every composition justifies its placement. 

Contemporary Hindi cinema has seen an upsurge of hyper-masculine spectacles modelled after Kabir Singh (2019), Animal (2023) and recently Dhurandhar (2025), many upcoming projects appear content to replicate that template. O Romeo! attempts to subvert complete assimilation into that mould. Its temperament carries Bhardwaj’s imprint, favouring lyricism over violence despite there being plenty of it. The romance between Ustraa and Afshan contains tender interludes, though their chemistry demands greater ignition to render the emotional stakes persuasive. 

Dimri interprets the bereaved wife with conviction, charting Afshan’s evolution into a woman prepared to master violence in pursuit of justice. The female characters are written with more agency rather than just decorative intent and even peripheral figures possess narrative heft. 

Julie (Disha Patani), a dancer, playing Ustraa’s initial romantic interest, adds another shade to the emotional mosaic. Massey, though allotted scant minutes, lends poignancy to his scenes with Dimri. Aruna Irani, Farida Jalal and Nana Patekar bring their gravitas to the plot. Bhatia too serves her arcs efficiently before the narrative pivots back to male aggression. Each crime lord receives a sliver of history, suggesting the human sediment beneath notoriety. Tiwary’s Jalal, however, emerges as a miscalculation; flamboyant attire and exaggerated mannerisms dilute the menace the script attributes to him, leaving the antagonist curiously weightless.

Bhardwaj remains a formidable architect of Indian noir, capable of conjuring immersive realms with ease. The production design exudes polish and the action choreography, particularly a kinetic sequence featuring Kapoor and Dimri as partners in flight and fire, exhibits flair. Still, as the running time approaches three hours, the screenplay begins to fray.

Recurrent dialogue exchanges and familiar plot turns erode momentum and the structure diffuses. Its central proposition, that intimacy can coexist with brutality and that even the most ruthless figures harbour tenderness, holds dramatic promise. The later passages, however, skim these ideas rather than excavate them. 

The film does not redefine the gangster saga, yet it offers sufficient spectacle and emotional voltage to warrant a theatrical viewing. The final act regains urgency and culminates in a rousing yet foreseeable crescendo. With a more disciplined edit though, ‘O’ Romeo’ might have achieved the narrative stature its ambition seeks. Should word of mouth favour it, Bhardwaj’s devoted audience will undoubtedly gather.