Singh Saab The Great Review

It's a Sunny Deol movie and so there will have to be that Dhai kilo  (read three and a half now) Ka haat going dishoom -dishoom.  Yeah three and a half kilos , not because it's become  saggy and fleshy but because he's risen in stature- at least in filmi terms, and goes on to become a game changer through peace activism and diplomacy. He is not a Gandhi follower but does one better by going the Vivekananda way.  So don't expect Badla ,look out for Badlaav  instead.

It's a no-brainer that even a great saab like this Singh has to have experienced something cataclysmic  for the transformation to happen. So the story goes that this Singh was an idealistic incorruptible collector with a loving wife (Urvashi Rautela)and chulbuli(stereotype) sister, who sought out to change the system his usual push and shove way before having to face the consequences- his wife's death and a consequent 7 year jail term, conspired by Bhoodev(typically Prakash Raj), a villainous landowner , deep in the boondocks, of rural Punjab. In comes journalist Sahiba(Amrita Singh wearing glasses) and she is in fact telling us the great man's story in flashback and how following his wife's death she was more than willing to step into the gap(that's the impression we get). Whatever happened to impartial objective reportage, you may well ask? Never mind that..!

One young lady was already sacrificed and another one would have been just too much. Thankfully the script does not allow Singh Saab to reciprocate the journalist's obvious interest - keeping him busy as poster boy for NGO campaigns and movements like the People's Beat. The Aam Aadmi is part and parcel of this skewered narrative while issues of corruption, criminal misdeeds and injustice against the so-called mango people are brought to the fore. Inspiration comes from as diverse sources as `Lage raho Munnabhai,'  `Satyagraha' and Rajnikant's `Sivaji' to name just a few. The mix and match patchwork quilt narrative does little to involve or engage the viewer. Through the hysterical twists, turns and flashbacks,  we are treated to filmy romance, eternal undying love and sibling affection -as part of the engine that drives this great man to do great things. The smattering of Punjabi in the dialogues makes it clear that this film is unashamedly targeted at the North Indian crowd. It's a smart enough move considering that Sunny Deol's pan-India following has dried down to a trickle and only his faithful from the northern Punjab, Delhi, Chandigarh belt continue to venerate the once `Big' Action hero of Bollywood.

Anil Sharma gets Dharmendra and Bobby to sway to the beat alongside Sunny in an unabashed item song right towards the start, in a desperate attempt to kick start his Saint Sunny campaign. Unfortunately, after YPD 2, the threesome are just not happening anymore. So no extra points to be earned there. Anand Raj Anand and Sonu Nigam's combined efforts in the music department are quite unremarkable though the Punjabi rhythm is unflagging.

The narrative ebbs and flows, going back and forth in time, trying hard to gain depth and weightage in content, but that's also not quite happening. AnilSharma combines with Shaktimaan on screenplay and makes a royal mess of everything. The dialogues are the usual idiomatic typically clap worthy variety. Prakash Raj can do little to make things interesting- though his stature as villain is now all-encompassing. Amrita Rao and Urvashi Rautela are reduced to mere window dressing here.  The film is also quite long in the tooth and could have done better with a brisker, racier edit.

Sunny Deol makes it worth watching - his sincerity and restrained expressiveness temper the melodrama to a certain extent.  He looks believable in the action sequences and oozes humility while enacting the peace-trick. His trademark affability and almost shy reticence continues to endure and endear!

Rating ***