I walked into The Great Grand Superhero fully prepared to make fun of it. The title alone sounds like somebody gave a group of children ten minutes to invent a movie during lunch break and then immediately approved the first idea involving aliens, superheroes, grandfathers, explosions, and emotional life lessons. And honestly? That energy never really leaves the film. The surprising part is that it works far more often than I expected.
Directed by Manish Saini, The Great Grand Superhero: Aliens Ka Aagman is one of the strangest mainstream Bollywood releases in recent years because it feels completely uninterested in current industry trends. While everybody else is busy making giant action spectacles, gritty crime dramas, universe-building franchises, or films where every hero enters in slow motion while physics quietly resigns from existence, this movie decides to tell a story about a grandfather secretly fighting aliens while bonding with his grandson. That premise is either adorable or completely ridiculous, depending on your mood.
Jackie Shroff is the reason the movie works. Without him, this could have easily become one of those aggressively cheerful family films that mistake loudness for charm and imagination for storytelling. Instead, Jackie brings genuine warmth to the role. He plays the grandfather not as a larger-than-life superhero first, but as a slightly eccentric, deeply affectionate old man who happens to possess extraordinary abilities. That choice grounds everything.
One of the smartest decisions in the film is refusing to turn Jackie into a conventional superhero figure. He isn't trying to imitate younger action stars. He isn't performing endless gravity-defying combat sequences while pretending aging does not exist. Instead, the film leans into his age, his personality, and his natural screen presence. Jackie spends much of the movie behaving like the coolest grandfather imaginable. He tells stories, gives strange advice, protects children, delivers jokes with complete seriousness, and occasionally fights alien threats without looking particularly interested in impressing anyone. Honestly, it's a great performance.
The relationship between the grandfather and grandson becomes the emotional core of the film, and thankfully, the screenplay understands that emotional connection matters far more than the alien storyline. The child characters, especially Shivansh Chorge, bring genuine energy without becoming unbearably cute. That's a difficult balance for family films, and The Great Grand Superhero mostly gets it right.
The movie understands something important: Children do not need constant jokes every twelve seconds. They need investment. The scenes between Jackie and Shivansh often work because they feel natural. There's affection, curiosity, awkwardness, and genuine warmth. The film never forgets that childhood imagination itself is one of the story's central themes. The aliens and superhero elements often feel like extensions of that perspective rather than separate spectacles inserted for commercial reasons.
Visually, the movie is far better than I expected. No, this is not a massive VFX-driven blockbuster competing with Hollywood budgets. The effects occasionally show their limitations. Some creature designs look slightly inconsistent. The film compensates with creativity. Manish Saini approaches the material with sincerity rather than trying to overwhelm audiences with scale. The alien world-building feels colorful and playful. The action scenes remain easy to follow. The production design embraces fantasy without becoming visually exhausting. Most importantly, the movie actually looks like it was made for families rather than algorithms. That alone deserves respect in 2026.
Prateik Babbar is solid in a supporting role, although I occasionally wished the screenplay gave him slightly more depth. He brings enough emotional presence to matter, but there are stretches where the story becomes so focused on Jackie and the children that several adult characters start feeling underdeveloped. Bhagyashree also brings warmth to the family dynamics, helping maintain the emotional balance whenever the plot threatens to disappear entirely into alien chaos. And trust me. The plot occasionally threatens exactly that. Because, for all its charm, The Great Grand Superhero absolutely has moments where it behaves like three different movies trying to occupy the same runtime simultaneously.
At times, it's a family drama. Then it's a children's fantasy. Then it's science fiction. Then it's emotional nostalgia. Then somebody starts talking about alien danger, and suddenly we're back inside a superhero movie again. The tonal juggling act mostly works because the emotional center remains strong, but there are definitely stretches where the screenplay feels overloaded. Certain scenes arrive with the energy of writers throwing every idea onto the table and trusting Jackie Shroff's charisma to solve structural problems.
The pacing also becomes uneven in the middle section. The first act establishes the mystery and family dynamics effectively, while the final act delivers satisfying emotional payoffs. The middle, however, occasionally wanders. Some scenes repeat information. A few subplots receive more attention than necessary. There were moments where I could feel the movie searching for momentum before finding it again.
The humor is another mixed element. When the comedy emerges naturally from character interactions, it works really well. Jackie has always possessed effortless comic timing, and several exchanges genuinely land. But some broader jokes feel aimed exclusively at very young audiences. A handful of comedic scenes have the exact energy of adults trying desperately to convince children that something is hilarious. Children are ruthless audiences. They know when you're trying too hard. Thankfully, the film usually recovers quickly.
One thing I genuinely appreciated is how emotionally sincere the movie remains. Modern family entertainment often hides behind irony because filmmakers seem terrified of earnestness. The Great Grand Superhero does not have that problem. It believes in family. It believes in imagination. It believes grandparents matter. It believes kindness matters. And somehow it delivers all of that without becoming unbearably sentimental.
There are definitely moments where the emotional music begins working overtime, like it's trying to secure its own acting credit. Some scenes push emotional beats harder than necessary. The film occasionally seems convinced audiences might miss the point unless accompanied by maximum orchestral encouragement. Subtlety briefly leaves the building a few times. Still, the emotional sincerity ultimately helps the film far more than it hurts it.
What surprised me most is that the movie never feels cynical. Even the alien conflict isn't built around destruction and endless chaos. The story remains focused on relationships, responsibility, courage, and childhood wonder. That old-fashioned emotional approach gives the film genuine personality. By the final act, I realized I was smiling more than I expected.
The screenplay is messy. The pacing wobbles. Some visual effects struggle. Several supporting characters deserved stronger development. The story occasionally feels like it has consumed too many genres at once. But the heart is real. And that matters.
Jackie Shroff carries the film with such warmth and conviction that even its rough edges become easier to forgive. He never treats the material like a joke, which allows the audience to emotionally invest in something that could have easily become self-parody. Instead, The Great Grand Superhero becomes something surprisingly rare: A genuinely wholesome family fantasy that remembers imagination works best when it's connected to emotion.
It's funny, chaotic, occasionally clumsy, unexpectedly moving, and powered by a lead performance that understands heroism has very little to do with age and everything to do with presence. While the film doesn't completely escape its structural issues or tonal excesses, it succeeds because it approaches its bizarre premise with sincerity instead of embarrassment. And honestly, watching Jackie Shroff fight aliens while giving grandfatherly advice is somehow a much better cinematic experience than several movies that cost five times more.
Final Score- [7.5/10]
Reviewed by - Anjali Sharma
Follow @AnjaliS54769166 on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times