Director: Rohit Shetty

Producers: Reliance Entertainment

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Prakash Raj, Kajal Agarwal, Sonali Kulkarni, Sudhanshu Pandey

Music: Ajay-Atul

Rating: * * * *

Plot: Inspector Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgan) is worshipped in the Konkan village of Shivgad because of his ruthlessness towards criminals and kindness towards the needy. Nobody messes with Singham until the day when he has an encounter with mafia cum builder cum politician Jaykant Shikre (Prakash Raj). Singham hits Bajirao’s ego so hard that he gets posted in the city of Goa, which is literally Shikre’s den. Thus, starts a battle between the good and the evil.  

If you try to list down the number of movies made on the premise of an honest cop pitted against a powerful mafia/politician, the figure will go into hundreds. Rohit Shetty’s Singham is based on the same theme. But Shetty’s nature of presentation and narration makes Singham stand apart from many of the dramas based on a similar storyline. For the kind of power the movie generates, it won’t be an understatement to say that Singham is one of the most well and powerfully made masala entertainers ever in Bollywood.

Yunus Sajawal’s fast-paced screenplay is loaded with plenty of clap-worthy instances while Farhad-Sajid’s powerful yet witty dialogues produce seeti bajao moments in abundance. But Devgn’s dialogues in the penultimate moments appear to have lifted from Rajkumar Santoshi’s Khakee. Some breathtaking action and stunts (Shetty) are a huge plus point although some appear too unrealistic.

But a good amount of credit should also be given to Amar Mohile’s background score. As Devgan goes about roughing up the gundas, the background music that follows gives you goose bumps and makes you crave for more. There is also a regular does of humor.

Most of the mass-friendly action flicks produced in the last few years have lacked a proper story and narration. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen here. There is always a danger of the writers and director getting carried away by this kind of a subject but here, they have taken special care in narrating a well-intentioned story intelligently.  And although you know the end of the story even before the film starts, the climax is by no means a run-of-the-mill type. The humorous situation in the ending moments is responsible for this.

To list the fallacies, you can add some scenes which appear over the top, too loud and unrealistic. Even the action in some parts looks animated. However, due to the powerful effect produced by the film, you don’t care much about these factors.

Sunny Deol is considered a specialist for such roles but Ajay Devgn proves here he is no less than the best when it comes to playing such an action oriented role. You just can’t stop admiring him every time he speaks those heroic lines, bashes up baddies, lambasts Shirke and also when he speaks Marathi in a wrong accent! Even his expressions are a killer. I repeat what I’ve said few times before – he is one of the best actors Bollywood has ever produced.

Although Prakash Raj’s character is similar to the one he played in Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap (specially his act in the end), it is enjoyable to see him perform. His ruthless acts as well as his comic antics are up to the mark though he overdoes at times.

Ashok Saraf excels in the post-interval scenes. Sachin Khedekar succeeds in tickling your funny bone but even he overacts few times. Sonali Kulkarni shows her class with a mature act. Kajal Agarwal is not bad. Thankfully, her love track with Ajay doesn’t appear a forced one. Sudhanshu Pandey impresses in a cameo.

Overall, Singham hits you but you highly enjoy the blows. Finally there comes a masala entertainer that has style as well as substance. It’s going to fetch good numbers even at the multiplexes while in the single screen theatres, the response will be terrific.