Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Amol Gupte, Dayanand Shetty, Anupam Kher, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Zakir Hussain

Direction: Rohit Shetty

Rating: **1/2 stars

With Independence Day falling on a Friday, probably there wouldn't have been a better day of release for the second installment of Rohit Shetty's much celebrated super-cop franchise Singham. Even from viewers' perspective what else could have been better than seeing an action packed cine saga circumscribed by the lanyard of patriotism around it. And probably this was the reason why Rohit zeroed down 15th of August to unveil this action packed cine enterprise "Singham Returns". Starring Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Amol Gupte, Dayanand Shetty, Anupam Kher, Sameer Dharmadhikari the movie opened amid a jam packed occupancy at the multiplexes.

Well as far cop cape sagas are concerned then the genre has already turned into an over-exploited territory, but in-spite of that this ilk of movie making still accrues a top notch in the priority list of Bollywooders who alter it as per their need and demand of the era. And it's because of this fascination for this genus of movie making that some sail on the skiff of the remakes whereas other opt to bogey on the yacht of sequels, Rohit Shetty's 'Singham Returns" safely falls in the latter category. Although "Singham Returns" was purported to be the sequel of 2011 blockbuster Singham, but in reality it has nothing in common except our very own hot headed larger-than-life super cop Baji Rao Singham.


Anyhow let's have a look at the premise first. After abrogating Jaikant Shikre in Goa (obviously not depicted in the movie) now Baji Rao Sigham (Ajay Devgn) has shifted to Mumbai, where a nexus of black money, electoral skulduggery is operational under the patronage of a political leader Prakash Rao (Zakir Hussain) and Swamiji (Amole Gupte). But Singham get a sniff of this immoral yoke only when an officer of his squad is found dead in a drowned ambulance carrying a gargantuan amount of cash. So in order to prove the rectitude of his colleague and get hold of those behind this entire conspiracy Singham begins his quest for the truth. So does Singham succeeds in his mission, and what else he faces in the path? To know watch "Singham Returns".

Well probably many of you (including those who are die hard fans of Rohit Shetty-ism) will agree that unveiling a sinewy story had neither been the hallmark nor the forte of Rohit Shetty, who usually prefer to make is cine-vessel sail either at the power of larger than life action sequences or at rib tickling potency of humor. Even with "Singham Returns", Shetty preferred to play safe by making his protagonists perform on a very basic and highly predictable script. However this time for change this time with "Sigham Returns" he somehow managed to entrench a social message while unfurling the nexus of black money, blind faith, electoral skulduggery etc in his cine plot. But in-spite of that there is no denying the fact that despite blending together some socially relevant cine flavors Rohit has failed in coming up with something which could have been far more superior in quality.

Be it amalgamation of redundant romance between our super-cop Singham and his lady love Avni, or those bland humor chunks everything just diminishes the overall appeal of the movie, which could have easily turned into an explosive action saga otherwise. In-fact if we thoroughly scrutinize the entire plot of the movie, then with a few new plots embedded in it, "Singham Returns" looks like a restructured guise of its prequel, with much lower dose of entertainment in the offering. And on the name of entertainment it only has those flying cars and scudding antagonists. In nutshell on premise front all that could be said about "Singham Returns" is that with super high degree of predictability and some obtruded cine constituents it ends up being a mossy cine chronicle.


Undoubtedly so far we have seen that whenever Rohit dishes out something in the form of a movie it somehow manages to emerge as a crowd charmer, but this time the maestro of action and comedy may end up disappointing many of his admirers. That's because be it insipid drama, obtruded song sequences or those strangely feeble rhetoric chunks of Sajid Farhad everything diminishes the the benchmark which was set by the first edition of Singham. As far as flow of the narration is considered then in both the halves it looks thoroughly oxymoron with a sheer oblivion about the concept of "pace consistency". But it's that Rohit Shetty-istic kind of high octane action and Ajay's onscreen presence which keeps fans gazes glued to the big screen despite so many discrepancies prevailing in the plot.

On cinematographic front Rohit along with DoP Narendra Rahurikar and cinematographer Dudley has raised the bar drastically by capturing the Mumbai milieu and those death defying action sequences with utmost excellence, but that in no manner deems "Singham Returns" to be addressed as an stupendous entertainer. Infact it would have been great, had Rohit tried to look beyond his safe zone and would have tried to have a tryst with something out of the box.

Even in the editing department movie's editor Steven Benard has failed in using his shears appropriately. And I am saying so because there are numerous sequences in the movie like those extended catwalks of Ajay with "Singham, Singham" running in the background and some of the overstretched action sequences which unnecessarily add to the length of the movie.


As stated above music of "Singham Returns" is nothing more than redundant condiment incorporated in the movie merely for heck of it. And the worst part is that, it is neither appealing nor plausible.

Well as far as performances are concerned then just like its so called prequel, "Singham Returns" is also an out and out Ajay Devgn cine affair in every manner. In-fact I personally feel that when it comes to playing a cop then there is no one better than Ajay, who always seizes your attention when he steps out in a Khaaki. In "Singham Returns", Ajay once again performs his part with conviction and succeeds in making viewers' go gaga over him and overlook the discrepancies prevailing in the movie.

Kareena remains overshadowed by her male counterpart in whole of the movie, but in-spite of that she manages to make her presence feel. As far as antagonists' league is concerned then Amole Gupte tries his level best to fit in the shoes of poseur and immoral Swamiji, but goes overboard quite often. Zakir Hussain as Gupte's is good. Anupam Kher, in small yet important role succeeds in leaving a pleasing impact.

Besides supporting cast comprising of Mahesh Manjrekar, Dayanand Shetty, Ganesh Yadav, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Ashwini Kalsekar, Sharat Saxena et al too succeeds in doing justice to their respective characters.


To sum up, doubtlessly "Singham Returns" is in no manner at par with its prequel but it's the sinewy and praiseworthy performance of Ajay which makes it somewhat tolerable and worth watching. And if you are a die hard action junkie who thoroughly adore Rohit Shetty-istic style of cine flicks with cars flipping and flying at a claps go, then probably "Singham Return" is for you. So keeping in view the acting excellence of Ajay and a decent dose of action I am going ahead with two and half stars out of five for this action packed mild entertainer.