How ironic is it that "Singham Returns," the lavishly produced, hammily acted and lazily directed sequel to a terrible blockbuster, will manage to rake in millions but be nothing but an astoundingly dimwitted film? The film's financial success was written before it was even released, for this film follows the ancient formula line by line and is carefully engineered to appeal to the masses. It revels in its own inaneness, expects its audiences to be as doltish as its characters and assimilate whatever 'whatsit' pretending to be a plot it pitches to them. And it drones on for more than two long, aging hours.
"Singham Returns" is identical to its anarchistic predecessor in many ways; the outline of the plot, the sketches of the characters, the spectacularly over-the-top dialogue delivery and its inability to ever take itself seriously. But the argument can be made that "Singham Returns," much like its predecessor, is an overtly patriotic film. It tackles significant issues that are currently plaguing the nation and tries to give suitable answers to eradicate them. The problem doesn't lie in the answers; it lies in its failure to comprehend the graveness of these issues. The answers are wildly illogical, and though the film's intentions are admirable, it desperately begged for a touch of pragmatism.
Rohit Shetty seems to have mastered the low-IQ action genre with films brimming with action, style and dynamite lines delivered with inspired vigor after every car explosion. This time, Singham (Ajay Devgn) faces competes with a crooked - aren't they all crooked? - politician (Zakir Hussain) and an equally twisted Swamiji (Amole Gupte) as they try to take over the city. His love interest, Avni (Kareena Kapoor, in a role that is often wasted in a film of this genre) wants to get married but appreciates his attempts to save the city from the grasps of the two obnoxious baddies.
Though exhaustingly predictable and occasionally melodramatic, "Singham Returns" is a surprisingly serious film for the mainstream audience. There's not much space to squeeze a bit of humor in the proceedings, which is why the character of Avni is introduced - for a bit of needless buoyancy. She's loud, annoyingly chirpy and completely, completely irrelevant. Rohit Shetty deliberately extracts laughable, caricatural performances from the entire cast, and it was dismaying to see a truckload of talent wasted so offhandedly. But I had come to expect this since "Singham" wasn't known for its performances anyway.
A vast section of the audiences will enjoy the stagy dialogues by Sajid-Farhad, I admit. There was applause and cheering when someone delivered a particularly catchy line in the screening I went to, so I expect this to be a case everywhere. The plotting is vacuous as usual, but what kind of plot does one expect from a gleefully dumb film?
But what stood out in the film was the terrifically-executed shootout sequence about forty minutes in, the first of the two. It was uncommonly smart for a film that doesn't try very hard to impress, but it did redeem itself to an extent.
In a nutshell, "Singham Returns" is only for fans of the first film and people who like to be called moronic, because this isn't a sequel for an audience who like a dash of intelligence in their entertainment. But - thankfully - it is not a manipulative film. The winsome intentions were in place. A bit of astuteness could have made this arduous excursion tolerable. I walked out with a feeling that my head was put together wrong.
"Singham Returns" is identical to its anarchistic predecessor in many ways; the outline of the plot, the sketches of the characters, the spectacularly over-the-top dialogue delivery and its inability to ever take itself seriously. But the argument can be made that "Singham Returns," much like its predecessor, is an overtly patriotic film. It tackles significant issues that are currently plaguing the nation and tries to give suitable answers to eradicate them. The problem doesn't lie in the answers; it lies in its failure to comprehend the graveness of these issues. The answers are wildly illogical, and though the film's intentions are admirable, it desperately begged for a touch of pragmatism.
Rohit Shetty seems to have mastered the low-IQ action genre with films brimming with action, style and dynamite lines delivered with inspired vigor after every car explosion. This time, Singham (Ajay Devgn) faces competes with a crooked - aren't they all crooked? - politician (Zakir Hussain) and an equally twisted Swamiji (Amole Gupte) as they try to take over the city. His love interest, Avni (Kareena Kapoor, in a role that is often wasted in a film of this genre) wants to get married but appreciates his attempts to save the city from the grasps of the two obnoxious baddies.
Though exhaustingly predictable and occasionally melodramatic, "Singham Returns" is a surprisingly serious film for the mainstream audience. There's not much space to squeeze a bit of humor in the proceedings, which is why the character of Avni is introduced - for a bit of needless buoyancy. She's loud, annoyingly chirpy and completely, completely irrelevant. Rohit Shetty deliberately extracts laughable, caricatural performances from the entire cast, and it was dismaying to see a truckload of talent wasted so offhandedly. But I had come to expect this since "Singham" wasn't known for its performances anyway.
A vast section of the audiences will enjoy the stagy dialogues by Sajid-Farhad, I admit. There was applause and cheering when someone delivered a particularly catchy line in the screening I went to, so I expect this to be a case everywhere. The plotting is vacuous as usual, but what kind of plot does one expect from a gleefully dumb film?
But what stood out in the film was the terrifically-executed shootout sequence about forty minutes in, the first of the two. It was uncommonly smart for a film that doesn't try very hard to impress, but it did redeem itself to an extent.
In a nutshell, "Singham Returns" is only for fans of the first film and people who like to be called moronic, because this isn't a sequel for an audience who like a dash of intelligence in their entertainment. But - thankfully - it is not a manipulative film. The winsome intentions were in place. A bit of astuteness could have made this arduous excursion tolerable. I walked out with a feeling that my head was put together wrong.