By: Keyur Seta

Director: Rohit Shetty

Producers: Reliance Entertainment

Writers: Yunus Sajawal and Sajid-Farhad

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Amole Gupte, Kareena Kapoor, Dayanand Shetty

Music: Jeet Ganguli, Ankit Tiwari, Meet Bros and Yo Yo Honey Singh

Genre: Action Drama

Rating: * * ½

Story Outline: After eliminating the evil gangster politician Jaykant Shikre in Goa, the brave-heart Police Inspector Singham (Ajay Devgn) is now posted in Mumbai. He is close to the head of a political party (Anupam Kher) and considers him his guru. One day, a police constable from Singham’s team is killed in an accident. He was driving an ambulance that contained crores of black money. The ambulance belongs to Swamiji (Amole Gupte), the thug and corrupt spiritual guru. As the constable was driving a vehicle full of black money, he is labeled corrupt.

Review: Singham (2011) is one of the greatest masala entertainers as it gained acceptance even from the section of the audience that doesn’t prefer such genre of films. This was simply because it managed to strike an emotional chord so well. As such films don’t arrive regularly; it won’t be fair to expect the same magic from Singham Returns.

But one would surely expect the film to provide a good amount of satisfaction through a similar effect. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. No doubt Singham Returns does provide plenty of seeti bajao moments, but the end product is nowhere close to the first film thereby making it just a one-time watch and that too strictly for the lovers of the genre. It is yet another Hindi film sequel that is made just for the sake of making it.

The big reason why the sequel lags way behind the film is the flow of events. Despite being a commercial potboiler about good versus evil, Singham was well narrated. This also ensured that the punch lines became an integral part of the content, making them so appealing.

The sequel, however, lacks proper flow, becomes completely predictable and follows a typical tried and tested road of the many cop dramas of the 90s. So the many punch-lines and hero-giri moments hardly offer any impact as they appear forceful, barring few instances. It is also quite funny to see a good duration of the first half being exactly like the TV series C.I.D.

Shetty has also given too much importance to fights, bullet firing and explosions. It not only becomes an overdose but is also unconvincing and limits the film’s reach, especially due to some tragic violent scenes. And as per his habit, he overdoes the car demolishing act too!

Along with few impressive moments, the saving grace is the overwhelming and applaud-worthy climax. But still it doesn’t do much to derive the overall satisfaction that one expects from the sequel of Singham. Plus, the torturous Honey Singh number ‘Aata Maji Satakli’ during the ending credits further adds to the woes. The rest of the songs too are nothing much to speak about.

The other plus point is surely the skillful camerawork. A couple of long aerial shots are brilliant! The background score complements the situations. It is similar to the first film and rightly so.

Ajay Devgn’s macho act stops the film from going more downhill. Although he doesn’t provide the punch like he did before, he manages to keep the interest alive even when the script is going downhill. Amole Gupte gets into the skin of the character of a thug spiritual guru with ease. It is just that on few occasions he overdoes it.

Kareena Kapoor is just above-average. Zakir Hussain is effective as another bad guy. Dayanand Shetty is made to do the same thing that he has been doing in C.I.D since 17 years! Anupam Kher and Ganesh Yadav excel in extended cameos. The rest of the actors are alright.

Overall: Singham Returns doesn’t live up to the expectations and turns out to be just a clichéd cop drama. The brand name and some great hype will help it garner great collections at the box office.

P.S: The story of Singham Returns is continued from the first film. So what happened to Kajal Agarwal’s character and her love story with Singham?