Yes. You aren’t mistaken. It really takes a Paragon to kill a cockroach. Even I realized it only yesterday. The place was E-Square mall, University Road, Pune. “Cockroach ko maarne ke liye Baygon nahi mila tho Paragon ka bhi istemaal kar sakte hai saab” goes the statement. It means, if you do not find Baygon to kill a cockroach, you can still kill it by spanking it with your Paragon slipper. Thanks to Rohit Shetty, the movie Singham is a host to numerous such dialogues. Hilarious the movie was, in every frame, barring the first few minutes before the titles. After the superhuman song in Golmaal Returns (perfectly aped from Rajni’s Sivaji) Singham makes us feel that Ajay DevGUN is THE ONE to probably carry Rajnikant’s legacy going ahead.
Though I would like to comment on the film exclusively, I can’t resist myself from comparing it with its Tamil/Telugu counterpart. The main plot of the story is not much different from its Counterpart, but the Hindi version in addition, has an interesting cause unlike its original. Well, as the story goes, Bajirao Singham is a cop in a small local police station in Sinhgad, a place on the Maharashtra-Goa border. His family owns a distribution agency. He has a very unique style of settling disputes and ensuring that there are no charge sheets against anyone. However, his counterpart Surya, in the original version has his unique way of keeping criminals locked up in a room in his own house and ensures that they are well fed everyday. Now enters the heroine, and few incidents lead to some chemistry between them despite being against the wish of the heroine’s father. The villain’s business goes on parallel to the story. However, there is an irrational judge in the story who issues a conditional bail to the villain on a case, and summons him to sign in Sinhgad police station for a fortnight. God knows why Sinhgad, but he ends up locking horns with the protagonist during this. As a result, the protagonist gets transferred to Goa, where he is abused and tortured by the villain. The villain calls him up and assures him of mental torture before finally letting him commit suicide and then comes the interval bang. How the hero fights back, forms the rest of the story. Apart from this, there is another thread of a martyr police officer’s wife fighting for justice, which runs parallel to this.
Kajal Aggarwal did a very decent job as the ladylove and she looked like a next-door girl. Her role wasn’t that significant in the movie except for inspiring the hero to stay back when he decides to quit his job. However, she showcased her usual charm and agility in her acting. Her role was crafted as a very bubbly girl who can get really serious if needed. In my opinion, she probably did carry the role better than her south Indian counterpart Anushka. With no skin show in the movie, Kajal is probably the only south Indian heroine who did a decent debut into Bollywood. We should see if this is to continue.
Prakash Raj did a yet another excellent job as the Baddie. He had this unusual mannerism in the movie which he portrayed very well. One could see two shades in his acting in this role. Rohit probably did a right choice for the villain. The other actors lived up to their roles.
Back to the protagonist, I felt Ajay Devgan was making his honest efforts to outsmart Sallu Bhai in showing his strong physique. I feel it worked for the movie. Recently, in one of the interviews, he remarked that among the younger generation heroes, there are only boys and no men, which really seemed to be true after I saw this movie. In other words, Bollywood doesn’t have an all-round next-gen to follow, unlike the Gen Y of the South. Ajay was spectacular in the movie, particularly with the background in place. He and Prakash Raj outplayed every other character in the movie. He was much eager to show his abs and packs wherever possible.
Music by Ajay-Atul was very honest and never overdone. I think Rohit deserves an applause for not messing up the plot with unwanted songs and raunchy item numbers, where there was an ample scope to have them. The background score was also in tune with the screenplay. The Hero’s background score and ‘Badmaash Dil’ deserve a special mention.
Direction by Rohit Shetty was good in parts. He had a really good script in place, to make an inspirational film, but with an overdose of stunts, it appeared like a superhero comedy film. The entire theatre was laughing for most of the time. The only moments where there was silence in the hall were the pre-titles, the later 2 songs and probably a reel in the second half. One thing to his credit was that he just took the storyline from the original and adapted it wherever possible. So, we do not find many similarities between the original and the remake, making it more like an adaptation than a remake. Screenplay and Editing is also good. The cinematography and colour grading was really good. The kind of angles and techniques used to shoot the title scenes, were really amazing. Choreography was good. The Title song needs a special mention for the choreographer’s efforts to make it side-splitting. The only thing that I could not understand was what cost Reliance Entertainments 32 Crores in the making. Well, that’s for them to ponder over.
There are fairly good number of highs in the movie. However, all the frames shot on Ajay in the Goa Police Station are worth mentioning for the adrenaline rush they create. The Pre-climax is also awesome. The flipside is a weak climax. Also the chemistry between the lead pair is not so aptly directed. My final few words on the movie, if you expect entertainment, then Singham has tonnes of it. However, expect it to be a regular action flick and you’ll end up disappointed. On the whole, it was two and half hours well spent.
My Rating: 3.5/5.
P.S. - Tollywood and Kollywood are the two regional film industries in India that are comparable with Bollywood in terms of the industry size; i.e. the number of releases every year. And one thing is for sure to happen. After the success of Wanted, Ready and now Singham, with a few more remakes lined up, I can confidently predict that Tollywood and Kollywood will eclipse Bollywood in the near future. So, Rest of India, be prepared for an onslaught of South Indian films flooding your market.
Nice review dude. Thgh a rating of 3.5 is too much for this movie. your prediction on the adaptation of the South Indian Movies in coming days is highly probable.
ReplyDelete