Ajay Devgan is an upright police officer and Prakash Raj, a rogue of a businessman who doubles up as a politician who is elected to power in Singham. It’s a fight to finish between the two. Prakash has the support of the system and the police while Ajay finds himself with almost no help. Find out more in the full review.
Business rating: 4.5/5 stars
Star cast: Ajay Devgan, Kaajal Aggarwal, Prakash Raj, Ashok Saraf, Sonali Kulkarni, Govind Namdeo, Ashok Samarth.
What’s Good: Fast-paced screenplay; out-of-the-world confrontation scenes; extraordinary dialogues; performances par excellence; superb action.
What’s Bad: Nothing really!
Verdict: Singham is a surefire hit, packed with power-packed performances, powerful dialogues and wonderful dialogues.
Loo break: None at all.
Watch or not?: Cent percent, watch it! And if you want to double your enjoyment, watch it with a big group of friends and family.
Reliance Entertainment’s Singham (UA) is the story of an honest police officer and his fight against a notorious businessman-turned-politician. Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgan) is a principled police officer of Shivgad on the Maharashtra-Goa border. He is much loved by the people of Shivgad because of his honesty, integrity, sense of fair play and ever helpful nature. Jaykant Shikre (Prakash Raj) is a wily businessman living in Goa. He has a couple of businesses but his major earnings come from extortion, kidnappings and the like. He murders people without batting an eyelid but the arm of law has not reached him because of his connections. He has gotten into politics and has a number of police officers serving him and covering up his illegal activities.
Jaykant Shikre gets bail in one such criminal case in Shivgad but he is required to mark his presence in the Shivgad police station for 15 days. Used to sending his stooges to sign on his behalf, Shikre does the same this time but Singham, the inspector in charge of the Shivgad police station, will not allow anyone except Shikre to sign. Shikre is forced to step down from his high horse and come all the way to Shivgad to mark his presence lest he be arrested. At Shivgad, there’s a war of words between Singham and Shikre. Obviously, Shikre feels humiliated and he swears revenge.
Soon, Singham is transferred to Colva police station in Goa. To his horror, he realises that Shikre has got him transferred there to extract revenge. Shikre now openly challenges Singham and tortures him physically and mentally. The area DSP (Murali Sharma) is Shikre’s paid stooge and thwarts all attempts by Singham to bring Shikre and his men to book. Singham’s girlfriend, Kavya (Kaajal Aggarwal), stands behind Singham like a rock and, in fact, encourages him to stay on and fight Shikre when he (Singham) loses all hope and wants to quit Colva. There’s another solid reason why Singham stays back: the little son, Nitin (master Agasthya Dhanorkar), of late police officer Rakesh Kadam (Sudhanshu Pandey) pleads with him to stay back as he fears for the safety of his mother (Sonali Kulkarni). Rakesh Kadam, an upright police officer, had been victimised by Jaykant Shikre and had committed suicide as he couldn’t bear the ignominy of being branded as a corrupt police officer. His seniors had not supported him in spite of being aware of his innocence. His widow had been knocking the doors of the DGP (Pradeep Welankar) and minister Anant Narvekar (Anant Jog) to reopen her deceased husband’s case so that he could be proven not guilty. But, of course, the entire police force and the ministers were unsympathetic towards her.
What happens then? Does Singham decide to stay on at Colva? Is he able to prove Shikre’s crimes? Is his mission rendered more difficult when Shikre is elected to power? Is Singham allowed to take action against Shikre or does Shikre prove to be one up on him? What does minister Anant Narvekar do? What is the stand of the DGP, the DSP and the battery of police officers of Goa?
Singham Review – Script Analysis
The film is a remake of the Tamil film of the same name. Yunus Sajawal’s screenplay is fast-paced, especially once the drama between Singham and Shikre begins with their first confrontation. The earlier part of the film is devoted to establishing the characters of Singham, his parents, the local people of Shivgad, Shikre, Kavya and her family members who come to Shivgad from Goa, etc. While some portions of this part are very interesting, the other portions, especially the romantic drama between Singham and Kavya, aren’t equally so. Even the romantic portions have their highs and lows – some parts are entertaining, others are less entertaining. The pace picks up once Singham objects to Shikre’s man signing the register at the police station. From there on, the screenplay is so taut and engrossing that there’s not even a second when the viewer would want to take his eyes off the screen. The drama is both, thrilling and entertaining – thrilling because of the high-voltage drama between Singham and Shikre, and entertaining because of the comedy, mainly by Shikre. In other words, Sajawal’s screenplay after the romantic portion is established, is outstanding. Farhad-Sajid’s dialogues are brilliant and many of them will draw thunderous applause from the audience. In fact, each and every confrontation scene between Singham and Shikre is bound to bring the house down, so wonderful are the sequences and so powerful are the dialogues. No doubt, several dialogues are spoken in Marathi but even if they can’t be understood by the non-Marathi speaking population, they will be enjoyed by that section because the context of those dialogues will be clear even without knowledge of the language. Also, the Marathi dialogues don’t come in the way of the comprehension of the drama.
Among the other scenes – besides the confrontation scenes – which would evoke huge rounds of applause and whistles from the audience are the one in which Singham and his loyalist subordinates get even with minister Anant Narvekar, the one in which they walk out of his cabin and the doorkeeper salutes them, the scene when Singham confronts his senior (the DSP), the scene when Singham confronts the DGP and other corrupt police officers at the police carnival, the scene in which Singham tears off the FIR, the scene when the police officers leave the carnival and reach where Singham is, the scene in which the people of Shivgad damage all the cars of Jaykant Shikre etc. It may be reiterated that besides the above, every single scene in which Singham and Shikre come face to face is clapworthy, including the election speech scene and the car bomb scare scene thereafter. The comic scenes of Kavya’s father, Gautam alias Gotya (Sachin Khedekar), are also very entertaining.
The climax is just too wonderful and will bring the house down with laughter (in Shikre’s house) and simultaneously draw huge rounds of applause.
Singham Review – Star Performances
If the screenplay and dialogues are par excellence, the performances of the actors are out-of-the-world! Ajay Devgan, it would seem, was born to play this role. He is absolutely extraordinary as Singham and breathes fire in the scenes of confrontation with Shikre, his seniors and the minister. He is suitably mellow in the romantic scenes. This is one of the best ever performances of Ajay Devgan in his entire career and he would be a strong contender this year for the best actor award for this film. Kaajal Aggarwal may not be very beautiful but she acts with effortless ease. Her performance is good. Prakash Raj is mind-blowing as Jaykant Shikre. He lives his role and does such a great job of it that it is difficult – nay, impossible – to imagine anybody else in that role. It would not be one bit of a surprise if he picked up all the awards for the best villain. Both, Ajay and Prakash Raj make use of their eyes and body language so beautifully that it’s a delight to watch them together on screen. Ashok Saraf is first-rate as policeman Shiwalkar. He has some weighty dialogues that will win him fans. Sachin Khedekar is wonderful and his ring tone (‘Dhinka chika’) comedy is lovely. Sonali Kulkarni is excellently restrained. Anant Jog does a splendid job as the corrupt minister and his ‘Nonsance’ (‘nonsense’) dialogue is very entertaining. Pradeep Welankar shines as the DGP, especially in the climax. Ashok Samarth is extraordinary as Jaykant Shikre’s deputy, Shiva. His performance is also memorable. Murali Sharma leaves a lovely mark as the DSP. Govind Namdeo has his moments as Singham’s lovable father. Vineet Sharma (as sub-inspector Phadnis) and Ankur Nair (as sub-inspector Abbas) are endearing. Vijay Patkar (as Kelkar), Jaywant Sawarkar (as Kavya’s grandfather), Suchitra Bandekar (as Kavya’s grandmother), Suhasini Deshpande (as Kavya’s mother), Sana Khan (as Kavya’s sister, Anjali), Harry (as Nandu), Hemu Adhikari (as the old father of the dead Pappu), Meghna Vaidya (as Singham’s mother) and Ravindra Berde lend able support. Kishore Nandlaskar is terrific in a small role (of the corrupt minister’s doorkeeper). Master Agasthya Dhanorkar is cute and shines as little Nitin. Sudhanshu Pandey is pretty dignified.
Singham Review – Direction & Music
Rohit Shetty deserves kudos for his superb direction. His narration is remarkable and credit to him for making the action film so entertaining and engrossing. His biggest victory lies in making the action film seem like an emotional-action drama because it is the strong emotional undercurrent which comes across loud and clear all through the action fare. It is for this very reason that besides the masses and the menfolk, even girls and ladies will adore this action film and even applaud it with loud cheers and claps. Jai Singh Nijjar’s action scenes and stunts are enjoyable, entertaining and engrossing. The masses, especially, will simply love the stunts. Music (Ajay-Atul) could’ve been better as the absence of a hit song is felt. Nevertheless, the title track has its own beauty and it creates a huge impact when it comes at various points in the background. Badmaash dil is good and Maula is also fair. Song picturisations (Ganesh Acharya) go with the mood of the film. Swanand Kirkire’s lyrics are nice. Background music, by Amar Mohile, is splendid. The use of the ‘Singham’ chorus in the background is just too wonderful. Dudley’s cinematography is first-rate. Narendra Rahurikar’s sets are appealing and the sets on which the songs have been picturised are eye-filling and grand. Editing (Steven Bernard) is very sharp.
Singham Review – Komal Nahta’s Verdict
On the whole, Singham is a powerful action-emotional drama which boasts of equally powerful dialogues and absolutely power-packed performances. It’s a super-hit and will be loved by the masses and the classes, the men and the women, the young and the old, the rich and the poor. It is the kind of film which consumes the viewer and gives him the feeling that he was part of the fight against corruption! The film has immense repeat-value. Its business in Maharashtra will get a further boost because of the liberal use of Marathi in the dialogues.
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