The Great Grand Superhero review: Jackie Shroff's film is sweet, silly and nostalgic

For a film about aliens, superheroes and school kids with wildly active imaginations, The Great Grand Superhero has a surprisingly old-school heart. It is goofy, chaotic, sweet, occasionally messy, but most importantly, it remembers something Bollywood has almost forgotten lately: children deserve movies made for them too.

Directed by Manish Saini, The Great Grand Superhero – Aliens Ka Aagman follows an 11-year-old boy, Dipu (Mihir Godbole), who shifts to a new town and, in an attempt to impress his classmates, cooks up a rather unbelievable story: his grandfather (Jackie Shroff) is secretly a superhero preparing to stop an alien invasion.

What begins as a harmless childhood flex slowly snowballs into an adventure powered by fantasy, innocence and the kind of wild imagination adults unfortunately lose somewhere between EMI payments and existential crises. And amid all the cooked-up stories, two intriguing men (Saharsh Shukla and Kumar Saurabh) enter the scene in their shiny costumes, eventually bringing the children’s imagination to life.

Let’s get it straight, this is not a sleek Marvel-style spectacle trying to compete with global franchises or even a Krrish with a stylish flying suit. In fact, the film works best when it fully embraces its desi, slightly scrappy, comic-book energy. The aliens are dramatic, the situations are absurd and the kids are permanently in ‘mission mode’. Many may find the film even spoofy, but because of the honesty with which it is told, The Great Grand Superhero manages tug at the right heartstrings.

And then, Jackie Shroff enters the film, as the loving and ageing grandfather who may either save the world or make you look for his forgotten glasses. One of the film’s sweetest, funniest moments sees this grandchild-claimed fearless grandpa completely terrified of a lizard, thus instantly puncturing his superhero aura.

Jackie is clearly having fun here, and that makes watching him even more entertaining. There’s something incredibly endearing about seeing him play a grandfather-superhero instead of another brooding older man offering life lessons to the hero. He brings warmth, humour and just enough mystery to make the children - and honestly, even the audience- believe that maybe this man really fights aliens after dinner.

The film also smartly taps into a very universal childhood memory: believing every outrageous story your grandparents told you. Whether it was ghosts, hidden treasures, secret powers or impossible adventures, grandparents have always been low-key master storytellers. The Great Grand Superhero builds its entire emotional core around that idea, and that’s where the film becomes more than just any chaotic kids’ entertainer.

The young cast deserves a solid shoutout because the film’s energy depends heavily on them selling the madness with complete sincerity. Mihir Godbole leads the film with earnestness and wide-eyed conviction, while Shivansh Chorge and Jihan Hodar, as his friends, bring wonderfully innocent playground energy to the adventure portions. Their chemistry feels natural, loud and delightfully unserious, especially in moments when they believe they are in the middle of a scary alien attack.

Prateik Smita Patil also leaves an impression as the alien figure at the centre of the chaos, bringing both intrigue and charm to the role instead of turning it into a generic sci-fi caricature. Bhagyashree Patwardhan’s powerful cameo and a ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ moment add to the inter-terrestrial drama, while Durgesh Kumar’s absurd character fits seamlessly into the film’s eccentric little universe.

What also helps is that the film doesn’t want to be educative, aspirational or even emotional. It simply wants to tell a fun story about kids, imagination, friendship and a very reluctant heroic grandfather. And in an industry currently obsessed with violence, dark universes and hyper-masculine saviours, this film arriving with aliens, childhood chaos and granddad energy genuinely feels refreshing.

Of course, the film is not flawless. Some portions feel stretched, despite its less-than-two-hour runtime. The tonal shifts can also get uneven, and adults looking for tightly constructed sci-fi may occasionally find themselves fidgeting with their phones. And that slight momentarily switch from alien invasion energy to the environment-saving mission can also disappoint many.

However, what The Great Grand Superhero ultimately gets right is its sense of wonder. It understands that children don’t always need perfection; sometimes they just need a story that lets them believe something magical could exist around them. Maybe in their school, maybe in their neighbourhood, maybe inside their own home. Or maybe in their dada ji. And this is how cinema creates magic.