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Rohit Shetty’s new film with his old partner in commotion — comedy + action — Ajay Devgn is a unique motion picture. It’s an original sequel to a remake! While the 2011 first film Singham was a remake of the Tamil hit Singam, Singham Returns is an original second part, with the story credited to Rohit himself.
And the man knows a thing or two about making a sequel, about building a franchise. He has done Golmaal thrice over and the fourth one is on the cards. And if the cheer of the audience to the roar of the supercop and the anthemic title track and the gravity-defying action and the Marathi catchphrases is anything to go by, Singham is sure to return a few more times.
Bajirao Singham, played by Devgn, is Rohit’s superhero, the dark knight, with Mumbai as his Gotham City. Anybody mocking a cop or trying to bribe his way out or harassing a girl anywhere in Maximum City at any time of the day, the man arrives in his police car and pulverises the miscreants.
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Dark because despite being the honest and upright policeman he is, Singham is initially perceived to have failed at his job in protecting his juniors and seniors. One of his constables is killed first and then the political messiah Guruji (Anupam Kher) is shot dead, and Singham has to go undercover to uncover the mafia machinations of the fake and debauched godman Babaji (Amol Gupte) and the notorious politician Rao (Zakir Hussain).
Superhero Singham’s alter ego is the shy son of simple parents in Shivgarh, whose only objective in life is to get the angry not-so-young man married to childhood sweetheart Avni (Kareena Kapoor Khan), whose only objective in life is hogging at restaurants. Anyway when she does manage to put a smile on his grumpy face and demands to be told the three magic words, the dark knight rises again: “Aata majhi satakli!”
Despite all the nasty things the loud, louder, loudest baddies do or say in the film, never does Singham seem to be in a spot of bother. And after a point of time in the second half, one wonders which action set piece — and all of them are very well choreographed — is the victory fight. In fact, it needs the entire police force to take off their superhero suits — the police uniform — to ‘vest’ out their anger.
Like his leading man, Rohit brings a no-nonsense feel to this sweeping celebration of Mumbai Police. There are fewer comic scenes and the comedy in them is not flat-out silly like the first film. The romantic subplot along with the associated love songs again look forced, though, and the sequel could have done with a better class of villains to match up to Prakash Raj in Singham.
Devgn is in fine form and while in the past he has looked disinterested and lacklustre in many movies, as Singham his glare is intense, his speech stirring and his punches fierce. Fans of the actor are going to love him reprise this role. Kareena has very little to do except make faces and she doesn’t raise the stakes in any manner.
The Happy New Year trailer played in the interval where Rohit’s “common man” Shah Rukh promised that his dancing boys are coming this Diwali because “Todenge taale Indiawaale”. But what brought the house down was how Rohit’s superhero Ajay chose to break the lock. He simply ordered his Robin: “Daya, darwaza tod do!”
