India, Feb. 13 -- When an emotional, high-voltage scene on screen makes you titter instead of tearing up, you know something is not right. Somewhere between the filmmaker's intent and the audience's reception, the emotion gets lost in translation. That is the central tragedy of Vishal Bhardwaj's most massy film yet, O'Romeo.

Stepping away from his trademark Shakespearean tragedies (though cheekily retaining the influence in the title), Bhardwaj attempts a revenge saga laced with romance. The problem is that the two impulses rarely find balance.

The story revolves around Afshan (Triptii Dimri), who approaches Ustraa (Shahid Kapoor), a quirky gangster who infamously murders people with his ustraas. She wants him to take a 'supaari' on fou...