SINGHAM RETURNS MOVIE REVIEW

After the annoying but hugely successful Chennai Express, director Rohit Shetty is back with his trusted ally Ajay Devgn for yet another edition of the Singham franchise. While the first part was a direct remake of the Tamil Singam, Singham Returns has its own story, if you can call it one. 

Like all cop stories, we have a set of villains and the righteous hero weeds them out of the system. A corrupt politician and a fake ‘Godman’ are the antagonists here and Bajirao Singham (Ajay), with the help of his competent colleagues at the Mumbai Police, emerges on top in the end as expected. We also have the hero’s spunky love interest, played by Kareena Kapoor who rolls back the years and reminds us of her ‘Jab We Met’ energy, despite her obviously mature visage now.

Amole Gupte as the 'Godman' is hilarious and proves that he can be an enterprising actor in such mainstream movies, in addition to being a sensitive parallel cinema director. The imposing and muscular Dayanand Shetty as Inspector Daya gets a few really crowd-pleasing scenes and he is a very convincing cop on screen. In fact, all the cops in the movie are shown in the best possible manner and the film is a worthy dedication to the Mumbai Police force that guards the busiest city in the country.

The film has very few dull moments and even the songs are limited. Editor Steven Bernard has kept the overall product crisp. The thumping ‘Singham’ theme which plays for the most part in the background adds a lot to Ajay’s screen presence, heroic gait and swagger. Entertainer Yo Yo Honey Singh and a group of cute kids take care of the end credits and send us out with a few smiles.

There are plenty of moments to clap and whistle as a muscular and well-toned Ajay proves that he is among the best to carry off the cop garb. He looks majestic in it and further establishes the Singham character as a crowd favorite.

The stunt scenes pack quite a punch and it is ‘slam bang’ stuff all the way, with director Rohit himself designing the stunts. These scenes may be annoying for non-action buffs. In Dudley’s camera work, the aerial shots are picturesque and the night scenes are really pleasing on the eye. Good work on the DI too in ensuring a very sleek overall look.

Though the ending gets over the top, with all the Mumbai cops going on a public procession without their police shirts, it somehow gels with the overall loud and massy mood of the film and makes us overlook it.

So at the end of it all, the verdict is loud and clear. Singham returns for yet another solid hit.