SULTAN (U/A)

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Cast: Salman Khan, Anushka Sharma, Randeep Hooda, Amit Sadh, Anant Vidhaat
Running time: 170 minutes

When a Salman Khan film opens with a quote, it has to be by Salman Khan. So the first image to appear in Sultan is accompanied by the line, “Wrestling is not a sport. It’s about fighting what lies within” — Sultan. Sport or not, the wrestling in the film is what keeps Bhai’s Id party going but what lies within is where the trouble begins.

Let’s get the essentials out of the way. Sultan is a thoroughly entertaining watch with a clever blending of a sports film and a love story. Clearly written for and around the star at the centre, it celebrates Salman Khan the way his fans love it and yet doesn’t insult their intelligence. The wrestling set-pieces, from the akharas in Haryana to the MMA rings in Delhi, are excellently choreographed, taking you bang in the middle of the action.

The packed Priya crowd on Wednesday morning was right there, in the ring, cheering for Sultan through the three hours.
Watching a Salman Khan Id release first day-first show at a single screen should be on the bucket list of every movie lover.
You might not get to hear all the lines and you might have to watch a few extra dancers in silhouettes in front of the screen, but it’s a carnival at the movie theatres and that’s quite a rarity these days.

But there’s something so unforgivable in Sultan that it’s difficult to wholeheartedly champion the film or its hero. So, Sultan takes up wrestling because he has a crush on Aarfa (Anushka Sharma), who’s a champion wrestler from his district Rewari in Haryana. “Pehelwan ki jodi pehelwan se!” She is the Chitrangada of the piece raised like a son by her wrestling coach father (Kumud Mishra) and the dream of the father-daughter duo is to win the Olympic gold. They have been training all their lives for that one dream.

Sultan being our superhero, er, Salman, needs just one song montage — a few months according to the film — to become not only the district champion, but state champion and then national champion. They get married and together Mr and Mrs Pehelwan strike gold at wrestling championships in different parts of the world. 

Now, just before the Olympics, she gets pregnant. He is overjoyed and starts dancing in the streets. She tells her father that she will sacrifice her dream for Sultan. But there is not one scene, not one line in the 170-minute film where the husband asks the wife whether she would like to have the baby or even just being curious as to what now happens to her lifelong goal. Sultan’s character is not shown to be that criminally regressive or disturbingly insensitive till that point. It is the film that is so.

The big conflict of the movie happens next and we get into a time jump leading to the obvious resurrection of the hero which culminates in all the action in the last hour but the issue of a woman’s right to chase her own dreams within the folds of a marriage is conveniently pushed under the carpet. Not that Aarfa rises again like the man of the film; she becomes a kids’ coach in that Rewari akhara. Her monologue early in the film about how women are born behind a burkha and die behind it just turns out be another of those token gestures of gender correctness. 

Not many would be bothered by this. Definitely not Salman’s fans, who claimed all over social media that he was misquoted about “feeling like a raped woman”. They would go home with the image of a desi superhero who redeemed himself for love. They would try and replicate his Sultan slam and copy his signature moves to 440 volt. They would wear the Being Human T-shirt.

The performances in the film are good. Salman looks invested in the character. The mooch helps. The scene where he breaks down while looking at himself in the mirror is spontaneous and touching. Then when he returns to the ring after ages and walks out after knocking out the opponent, “Maine pehelwani zaroor chhodi hai, par ladna nahin bhoola”, is very powerful. 

Anushka’s no-nonsense Aarfa is very effective and works as perfect foil for the playful Sultan. Anant Vidhaat is very good as Sultan’s friend Govind. Amit Sadh is adequate as the man trying to bring Sultan back in action. Randeep Hooda is, again, the coolest one playing Sultan’s coach in the second-half cameo.

Polish cinematographer Artur Zurawski, who had shot Mardaani, is almost always at the right spot in the ring while shooting the wrestling scenes, giving you the feel of a role-playing game. Vishal-Shekhar is the safest bet with anthemic soundtracks and the title track does its job every time it comes in the film; and it comes a lot of times.

You don’t need to read a review for a Salman Khan film. By Sunday you would have watched Sultan. And largely enjoyed it. But if such big films with big stars continue to be so casual and callous about gender discrimination, we would be looking up at heroes like Sultan because we would be slammed to the ground, gasping for breath. 

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