Singham Returns
Hindi (U/A) ¬
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Amole Gupte, Zakir Hussain, Mahesh Manjrekar
Director: Rohit Shetty
Rohit Shetty and his films never follow laws, whether they be of penal codes or physics. Singham Returns is no exception. It’s a universe where Singham flies into a rage, the baddies become airborne with punches, and logic flies out of the window, usually smashing the pane on the way.
Bajirao Singham, we are told, is now a DCP in Mumbai. His childhood teacher runs a political party, his school senior is the chief minister, and his parents want him to marry the sister of a friend from the same village: Yes, continuity has flown the coop too.
CM friend and teacher-mentor are locked in a battle with their political partner when a cop is found dead with cash in an apparently stolen ambulance. How Singham clears his and the department’s name — we are eschewing the “whether” part for obvious reasons — and manages to punish the culprits is a tale stretched over 140 minutes where a lot of other things, from hot words to entire cars, fly with gay abandon. In short, same old story.
True, that the audience cheers all through, but their sense of schadenfreude towards the antagonists couldn't be more misplaced. After all, the director has managed to get them to spend fat bucks for a film whose absurdity lets the entire police force of a city leave their job so they can go bang bullets into the bums of the bad Baba and his henchman-politician for a confession.
Oh yes, let the robber rob, the thief thieve, the rapist rape, the murderer murder, and the common man suffer, but the cops all abandon their posts and uniform for “justice”.
Also, am I the only one around here who thinks the “Atta mazhi satakli” gesture looks like Obelix saying, “These Romans are crazy?”
