“Singh Saab The Great”… Deol fashioned way

If Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Satyakam were made today, it might look like Singh Saab the Great. Here, Sunny Deol takes on the role his father did in the earlier film, the honest man disillusioned by the nation around him – and he adds some creative touches. When he catches an eve-teaser in action, he pours a bottle of water down the man’s crotch, to cool his ardour, while drawing his attention to the bottle of acid nearby. And despite being a wronged man, he seeks not badla (revenge) but badlaav (change). Some things, though, never change. Hence, in this Anil Sharma movie, a reference to Deol’s 3.5-kilo arm (a cool one-kilo increase from the Damini days), and the scene where the actor stops a speeding car with one outstretched hand. There’s a fine masala moment involving a villain (Prakash Raj) who’s performing a yagna, but we’ve seen the surrounding scenarios too often, and a few nods to Facebook and Twitter apart, Sharma isn’t interested in updating this material. The result is a dull film whose greatness lies only in its title.

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Posted in: Cinema: Hindi