Movie: Singham Returns
Genre: Thriller
Direction: Rohit Shetty
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor,Anupam Kher, Amol Gupte, Dayanand Shetty
When Rohit Shetty must have been working on the post production details of the movie Singham Returns, he must have thought to himself- what better day to release the sequel to a ‘good cop’ movie than on Independence Day itself.So with all his patriotic sentiments right in place, he gifts us a movie that encompasses his idea of an imaandaar cop. The result is a hell lot of blown up cars, latest guns and bullets flying all over the place, an expressionless cop Ajay Devgn, a boring love story (sigh!) with his love interest Kareena Kapoor, who by the way is more misplaced than a furniture, unshakable unity of our dedicated police force and high end political drama that will make you perk up your ears, yawn and twitch- all at the same time.
If you have watched the first movie of the series Singham, you basically know the broad outline of the second movie. Basic premise stays more or less the same- Singham (Ajay Devgn) is a high ranking police office in Mumbai City and he is the living embodiment of an ideal police officer. Guruji (Anupam Kher) is Singham’s mentor and also a high profile good politician of Bharatiya Lok Party (a seeming rip off of BJP). Then (but of course), there is a rival party with a spiritual baba and his political aid. The universal good v/s bad continues throughout the movie with Guruji’s life in danger and we-know-who plotting to ‘eliminate’ him. Singham is the savior of the day which he ensures we believe with his dialogue –“47000 police waale jab jaagte hai, tab 2.5 crore Mumbai ki janta chain ki neend soti hai.”
Now, there are a few things I like about the movie and a lot more things that I don’t care for. I liked the high packed and well choreographed action sequences and cameo roles played by Marathi actors who made up for the lack of good acting. Things that my eyes begged me to blink and miss were a) Kareena Kapoor’s loud overacting b)Ajay Devgn’s blank poker straight face; c)cheesy and corny dialogues like “Ghodon ko ghaas nahi mili aur gadhe gulab jamun khaane agaye’ and d) the run-down good cop- bad guy plotline which reeks of wear tear with overuse. In the struggle to portray Ajay Devgn as the hero, all the other characters have been mercilessly sidelined. Even the villains do not have adequate space to explore their characters. Add to this, deafening background scores, worth forgetting songs and a narration dragged to last nearly 3 hours.
Rohit Shetty has a sincere fan following and so making money at the box office will not be an issue. But for the rest of you who look for a value for your money, I will not recommend you the movie unless and untill you have plenty of money lying waste and three hours to kill with just about nothing to do. Till then, let’s wait for next week’s releases.