Filmi Review

SINGH IS KINNG

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Om Puri
Rating: HH
Direction: Anees Bazmee

Cluck cluck. He has this yen for a hen. And so for an entire reel, Happy Singh chases a murghi around those Punjab mustard fields. Hen flies, someone mentions butter chicken, Happy runs after hen again, breaks a TV set and demolishes everything in sight, particularly your patience. Surely, it has to improve after this.

It doesn’t. Because director Anees Bazmee’s butter chicken gives those mustard field people badhazmee. Anon, they’re all making faces at Singh is Kinng, banishing Happy to Australia or wherever they’re offering air discounts now-a-daze. In the company of Om Puri (surely the thespian’s most challenging role yet), Happy lands up in Egypt — don’t even ask how — to make the locals unhappy.

Frankly, you’re not even looking for logic-‘n’-sense because for such good old virtues of entertainment are equated with ‘intellectualism’(will some nerd even explain what it means?). Sigh, you’re just looking for ‘time-pass’ but this isn’t worth your car fuel or cola-corn double whammy. It’s just bilge.

Contemptuous of audience taste, the screenplay is heavily cadged from Frank Capra’s Pocketful of Miracles (already done by Raj Khosla as Teri Maang Sitaron Se Bhar Doon and to a degree, sampled in Lage Raho Munnabhai). There’s also quite a lot of Jackie Chan’s Mr Canton and Lady Rose here. Viva DVD guys.

Now shhhh, you’re not supposed to bring up such piffling matters. Cinema’s all about making BIG bucks. Just get a star worth mega-crores, a director who’s scored a recent boundary or two, location shoot in the Gold Coast for cool subsidies, go far out with the publicity. And what do you know? You’ve got an initial audience. Unless your luck is really as bad as Tashan, it’s a win-win situation. Say cheese.

Hmm, never mind. Let’s get back to Yappy Happy (Akshay Kumar). Okay, so he’s on the coast, hungry for a toast, which is given to him by an NRI-kind of Tarla Dalal (Kirron Kher). Grateful for the rest of his life, Happy tells a gang of crooks to behave like boy scouts and help her in a pinch. Flinch. Arrives Toast Mommy’s daughter (Katrina Kaif) and her filthy rich fiancé (Ranvir Shorey looking anything but). Quite dottily, Mommy must be made out to be super-rich, too. And so the goons gurgle like babies.


If this mess wasn’t enough, there’s more. Happy’s brother or cousin or both (Sonu Sood, wasted) is a dreadful don who is paralysed. His fingers move all over the place though like bhindis. He’s a vegetable on a wheelchair. Despair. The second-half is especially bewildering. It has at least two more movies going on, one about a goon who discovers that he has a daughter (so?). And another about Javed Jaffery who breaks into dance as if he were the son of Basanti from Sholay. J J also has a duplicate with silver hair, perhaps to save on the expenses of hiring another actor. Really now.

If there’s a storyline here, it’s kept an international secret. Technically, the result could belong to the days of Jeetendra in the 1970s, what with the editing wipes and the harshly lit photography. Oddly, Pritam’s music sounds better in the promos. And the dialogue is of the ‘Kaan kholke sun lo’ type (is there any other way actually?).

Of the cast, Neha Dhupia keeps grinning (even in the sad scenes) while performing one of those gangster moll acts. Akshay Kumar does his regular mechanical number — stunts, comedy, repressed romance — with no surprises. Katrina Kaif, as a classic bimbette, doesn’t even have to speak too much Hindi. Mercifully.

All seen and survived, beneath the hype there's an empty heart here.

Singh Is Kinng - Khan is still King!



There has been a lot riding on this flick and why not when you have one of the hottest pairs Akshay and Katrina who return yet again after ‘Namastey London’. All the more hype when you have Anees Bazmee heading the ship. Bazmee’s track record at the box office says it all- Tremendous success with his previous ‘Welcome’ creating a box office record.

Now here we are with ‘Singh is Kinng’, with Vipul Amrutlal Shah who enjoyed much success with Akshay’s ‘Waqt’ taking his place as producer.

So does Akshay Kumar’s box office record especially overseas prove that he is the new King of Bollywood?

Synopsis…

Lakhan Singh aka Lucky [Sonu Sood] is the King of the Australian underworld, accompanied by his associates [played by Javed Jaffrey, Neha Dhupia, Manoj Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma, Kamal Chopra and Sudhanshu Pande]. Far away, in a small village in Punjab, where Lucky was born, there exists someone more notorious than him - Happy Singh [Akshay Kumar].

The village is fed up of Happy. Out of desperation, they decide to send him on a long trip to bring Lucky back to Punjab, as his despicable deeds were maligning their image in Australia.

The happy-go-lucky bumpkin, taking his mission a bit too seriously, embarks on his journey, accompanied by his friend, Rangeela [Om Puri], who hates Happy for dragging him into it.

The high point of his journey is his chance meeting with Sonia [Katrina Kaif], with whom he falls in love, but upon reaching his destination, things take a precarious turn as he runs into a series of comic misadventures, leaving him penniless. He is fortunate to find warmth and affection in an elderly lady [Kirron Kher].

In a strange turn of events, an attempt on Lucky's life is foiled by a well-intentioned Happy, who fights off the attackers by risking his own life. Following the altercation, Lucky lands up in hospital paralyzed and Happy, unexpectedly, finds the tables turned on him when he is expected to assume the role of the new King.

To begin with ‘Singh Is Kinng’ relies heavily on the star value of Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif and not much has gone into the plot. No doubt that an Anees Bazmee flick has nothing much for the intellectuals and is usually loaded with some whacky lines and interactions between characters. But this time out, Anees fails at something he is an ace-Comedy. There seriously aren’t many funny lines or scenes and the movie gets lost in the glamworld scenario of splendid locales etc.

There seems to be a lack of focus in the film which takes off well as an idea of a Punjabi lad ‘Happy’ going out to get King but things get haywire with the action followed by the stretched out love triangle between Akshay-Katrina-Ranveer. To make things worse Javed Jaffrey who starts out well irritates with his act and what was the double role for?

At some point one would wonder whether the film was really made with a solid script or just with an initial thought further enhanced by the so called star power at the box office that Akshay has been enjoying .

Maybe the flick was a shot at Shahrukh who has rightfully been called the King of Bollywood for ages. And with much being said about the rift between Akki and Srk , a lot can be observed with certain sequences in the film drawing references to King Khan.

The cinematography is splendid and a little editing of the tracks would help. The music is entertaining no doubt enhanced by loads of colour but it just pops in and out anywhere. The Snoop Dogg version appears at the end while the credits roll.

Akshay Kumar no doubt excels with his performance but since there isn’t much sensibility in the emotional sequences in the film you don’t connect with him much the way you would in a ‘Humko Deewana Kargaye’ or ‘Namastey London’. Katrina is cute and fits the bill. She is sure to draw in the masses.

Neha Dhupia does real well and impresses. Sonu Sood emerges with a brilliant performance and gets his share of bollywood finally. Manoj Pahwa , Yashpal Sharma and Sudhanshu Pandey are ok. Om Puri does well. Kirron Kher is ok but the logic behind her shedding tears etc is so lame. Ranvir Shorey is ok. Jaaved Jaffrey annoys.

To sum it up , Akshay does well but the film is much below expectations and why not when the title’s got the word ‘King’ attached to it. Akshay is no doubt a great performer but with this film lacks the true persona of the ‘King’ and there’s still a lot more to get to that ‘King’ status. So for now , Khan is still King.

Under normal circumstances movie titles come consequently from the film theme. But in this rare case the movie theme is an outcome of the movie title. At least that’s what Akshay Kumar confessed recently claiming that he came across the words ‘Singh is King’ as a tagline behind a truck. So inspired was he with the phrase that he suggested producer Vipul Shah to make a film out of it and Anees Bazmee was commissioned to script a story from the slogan. One can imagine the massive motivation Bazmee might have derived from this ‘2-word plot-point’ following which he defined two obvious characters as Singh and King and fabricated a screenplay around them as per customized requirements. Perhaps that’s what you call modern-age moviemaking!!!

Lucky (Sonu Sood) is the mafia King in Australia. Happy Singh (Akshay Kumar) is a good-for-nothing guy from Punjab. Both are introduced individually amongst chaos and commotion, ascertaining the approaching ambience of the film. What follows is a happy-go-lucky story in literal terms as Happy goes in pursuit of Lucky to Australia. For company he has friend (Om Puri) who appears more like his father.

Suddenly the producer desires a song sequence amidst Egyptian pyramids and so the writer twists the tale in such a way that Lucky lands in Egypt while on his way to Australia. He stumbles upon a Hindi speaking heroine (Katrina Kaif) in the Arab land and dances in dreams with her.

On reaching Australia they lose Lucky’s address and believe-it-or-not but cops drop them at the door of the don. In an accident Lucky gets petrified and Happy is designated as the new King. There’s also a mother figure (Kirron Kher) who serves him roti in Aussie land for no good reason or relation. As per cinematic coincidence or script convenience, this mother’s daughter happens to be our same Egyptian heroine who comes to Australia with her fiancée (Ranvir Shorey).

While Anees Bazmee’s madcap comedy ways aren’t entirely Welcome , Vipul Shah seemingly barges in midways turning things the Namastey London way by inciting a love triangle. So every comic scene is alternated with an emotional outburst and the outcome is reminiscent of your everyday stint of switching channels between cartoon network to the daily soaps to appease both your kids and kin. Alas you end up aggravating both! And so does the film!

The opening premise of Singh is Kinng faintly reminds of Sunny Deol’s Jo Bole So Nihaal which too had a similar setting of a simpleton Sardar going foreign land on a mission. At least that average film invoked some culture-shock comedy but there’s no such disorientation over here, as all you get to see in Australia is a gang that perhaps permits membership only to Sardars. Thankfully the film doesn’t sermonize on Indian culture and values and steers away from patriotic connotations, a usual tendency with such characterizations.

Pritam’s pungent Punjabi composition, at several occasions, might not go down well even with the community since the decibel levels are so noisy that even North Indians would find it difficult to decipher the lyrics. Anees Bazmee employs too many characters, too many plots, too many sub-plots, too many songs, too many gags and most of it doesn’t work in the favour of entertainment. Amidst all this one wonders why did he cast Javed Jaffrey in a double role with his two characters not even remotely complementing each other. Was he falling short of actors at the last moment?

Of the few jokes that actually work is the one where a petrified Sonu Sood is innovatively used as a domestic help. Others are of the unintentional variety where you see Yashpal Sharma or Kamal Chopra falling into a jig.

From the never-ending cast, Sonu Sood and Neha Dhupia are almost wasted. Ranvir Shorey does what Mohnish Behl used to play a decade back. Javed Jaffrey gets a relatively better character but carries an unwanted accent. His double role is utterly unwarranted though. Katrina Kaif is appealing and has a natural charm. Akshay Kumar, like always, plays his comic character with effortless ease.

In one scene from the film Sardar Happy Singh admits of cutting his hair without any justifiable explanation. That repudiates him from being an incorruptible Sikh, Sardar or ‘Singh’. And this king doesn’t quite rule your heart unconditionally. That denies him his true-blue ‘King’ status too.

Before the movie started one could feel the excitement in the hall with all the whistles, shouting and claps. But all went calm slowly and no one was excited enough as the last credits were rolling. There were mammoth expectations from Akshay Kumar in the role of a Sikh and coming up with a solid title “Singh is King” raised those expectations to the highest level. But sadly the film fails to satisfy even half of what was expected.

The film starts promisingly with some village sequences and then the story takes a similar turn like in “Jo Bole So Nihaal”. Here also a villager is sent to a foreign country to bring back his fellow villager, who is now the DON of that country. Last time we saw Sunny Deol going abroad to bring back a criminal, but this time Akshay has an associate Om Puri who goes along with him.

The story proceeds introducing some funny associates of the don who fail to raise enough laughter, a lady selling flowers, her daughter and her fiancé. Since the original don gets paralyzed, Akshay has to take over as the don and then he goes on to transform hearts. That’s the storyline of the movie.

The story commences with Akshay & Ompuri, boarding on to a wrong flight and they land in Egypt instead of Australia (Quite a new thought). The writer takes them there only to meet Katrina and sing songs and then they get back to Australia where the Don plot comes in. The question arises what this storyline has to do with the title “Singh is King” and a Sikh hero. It simply shows that the Sikh element was roped in to cash on to the Punjabi people (not only Sikhs) living all over the globe. The first half of the movie does has its moments but not in the required quantity. The second half dips down with unwanted love triangle plot and the viewer is left asking for more.

It can be noticed that there are two get ups of Akshay as a Sikh in the movie. One is in the Green turban in the opening where he is looking like a proper Sikh and the second is after this sequence (for rest of the movie), where he is not wearing a proper turban, has a french cut beard and is looking more like a magician. It looks like there was no knowledgeable Sikh person to guide them when they were shooting abroad. And when they understood the mistake they did some reshooting again for the opening sequence of the movie. Intelligently the promos also feature Akshay in the proper get up only which was rightly done by the team.

Performance wise Akshay is fine as a villager and the don. He starts the movie with his perfect comedy but loses the track in the later reels. He has very few funny lines to say & for that the script writer and the director has to be blamed severely. You will miss the famous Akshay Kumar laughter in the movie which can be found nowhere. Katrina looks ravishing but hasn’t got much to do. Ranvir Shorey is completely miscast and wasted as the loser fiancé. Ompuri and Kiron Kher are ok.

Interestingly there are a large number of talented people who are simply wasted in the movie like Neha Dhupia, Javed Jaffery, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Khayali and Sonu Sood. All these names are capable of adding more colours to the movie, specially the comedians but they were not given any chance.

Musically, it has few good numbers which are already a hit. But some unwanted songs are also there like “Bhootni Ke”. Surprisingly Daler Mehndi’s voice in this track was missing in the movie. Preetam always manages to give few hits in all his scores, which is good for him but may be not for the movie this time.

The director, Aneez Bazmee seems to be missing the train this time. It looks like he was in so much hurry to make this film that he forgot to work on the script and on the entertainment quotient. This time, his direction lacks the perfect comic timing which we have seen in his last few ventures. May be he relied too much on the crowd pulling power of Akshay Kumar and on the solid strong title.

In the end I would like to say that I was feeling completely unsatisfied after watching the movie as it had a misleading title which had nothing to do with the film. Moreover it failed to entertain as per the huge expectations. But the film will definitely get a huge opening that’s for sure. And I will also not be surprised if the film is declared a hit because we have seen some mediocre film working in the past too.