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  Manisha Lakhe

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MUSCLE MASALA MASHUP

This is a pound-to-pulp action flick that is going to earn Rohit Shetty and Co pots of cash at the box office and earn Ajay Devgn a serious reputation of an action hero. No longer will he have to drive a motorbike that has been extended to accommodate three other heroes and a heroine, but will ride through action starved audience in a riot that is Singham.

MUSCLE MASALA MASHUP

This is a pound-to-pulp action flick that is going to earn Rohit Shetty and Co pots of cash at the box office and earn Ajay Devgn a serious reputation of an action hero. No longer will he have to drive a motorbike that has been extended to accommodate three other heroes and a heroine, but will ride through action starved audience in a riot that is Singham.

Don’t get me wrong, the South pictures (both Tamil and Telegu) have been doing this much longer than Bollywood, and Singam,the original, which stars Surya as a small-town cop dragged into an ego-assuaging trip by a crooked but powerful politician, has earned millions.

The film-makers decided to cash in on the success of the story and remade this legally. But with everything just set in Goa (yes, another cop and corruption movie set in Goa after Dum Maaro Dum and Murder 2), does the movie come across as believable, or would a simple dubbing in Hindi would have worked as it does for most Hollywood releases...

ROHIT SHETTY BLOWS UP CARS

Cars flying through the air, cars blowing up mid-air, cars in collision mid-air, cars somersaulting mid-air and more are signature Rohit Shetty action scenes. The audience suspends disbelief to accomodate a car chase scene - shot clearly at a New Bombay mall - into Goa. But it tends to slow down the narrative which is clearly meant to be pacey, action packed masala flick.

MASALA WITH MUSCLE. WORKS FOR ME!

Yes, there are moments where you wonder why they think that the stereotyping comedy works. The pointless continuous ‘Gotya’ cracks at the heroine’s father, the phone interruptions, are things that simply don’t work, so they need to find a funnier bone.



But the action scenes, yes, even those that involve cars, work for me. The beating up of the bad guys is brutal and goes on and on. But think about it, the hero is beating up baddies that yanked the heroine’s dupatta! Can hear whistles and claps at a regular screening when the hero spouts out lines like, “If the police does it’s duty, people will be afraid of stealing a pair of chappals from outside a temple!’

Of course the wide-eyed heroine gently places her hand on his shoulder after the hero has draped the dupatta (her izzat!) around her. The muscle bound hero fought off an army of baddies for her! Which girl would not like a rescue like that!

WHEN BEEFCAKES ROMANCE



Some of the romantic scenes are cute but the songs, especially the sufi one simply don’t work. Yes, I am the first one to lament the death of Sync sound for songs.One has come to accept background songs playing the romantic tune. But here the husky female voice just does not suit Kajal Agarwal and the squeaky voice for the big dude was just so out of place. Also hated the Hud Dabanng ishtyle title song.

What I totally loved was the heroine’s attempts at getting the hero’s attention.

SURIYA OR AJAY? LET ME COMPARE



I am a die-hard Suriya fan. The gentleness in his eyes is such a direct contrast to his muscle bound body, that the persona of a small town cop dragged into the villain’s lair works. I also enjoy watching the transformation of the gentle eyes into those of a vicious avenger. His confusion at discovering romance is also so much more sigh-inducing.

But Ajay Devgn makes you want to walk the Singham walk. A strut that claims he is the ‘man’ in the scene. His body language is perfect, he manages to exude the manliness at all times. But he scores above average in the gentleness part as well. Though I would rather have him sneer and say, ‘Majhi satakli’ (I’ve lost it now) than smile at me... But then I’m not Kajal Agarwal (really pathetic when compared to Anushka Shetty in the original).



The support cast is just that. And you wonder which one of them is going to be collateral damage with all the fights going on. My vote goes out to Sonali Kulkarni’s weird kid (doesn’t die, alas!) who has an evil stare. Vikram Bhatt or RGV ought to consider him for their next horror film. His stare curdled the coffee in my hand.

Go see the film with a bunch of friends and enjoy the punch ups. I did.