Sunny Deol's sincerity- in ample display when he is bashing bad guys to a pulp, or when he is roaring out insults, and Prakash Raj's delicious evil are redeeming factors that somehow elevates Singh Saab The Great from a mediocre revenge saga to a film with some semblance of substance.
"Badle se Badlav"
As the titular character, he is a tainted collector who tries to overcome his thirst for revenge against his nemesis, Bhoodev Singh, to become an agent of change. Singh Saab is a cross between any of Sunny Deol's past characters in Ghayal, Tridev, Damini or Narasimha (yes, he has been typecast so much!), and something Arvind Kejriwal should have been- leader of a people's movement, not the politician that he turned out to be. But then Kejriwal is subject for another discussion, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Farhan Akhtar be damned, there is none who can play a more authentic Sikh in Bollywood than Sunny. Alternating between genial, loving, bumbling husband and brother, and a fearless leader cum goon-crusher Sunny holds the movie together, despite a weak script and overlong romantic interludes.
Singh Saab the Great is a typically jingoistic Anil Sharma movie, but it is no Gadar- you have heard all the quotable dialogs in the trailer. The romantic back-story between a 50 year old Sunny and the 19 year old newcomer Urvashi Rautela is grating. The comedy is mostly out of place, and the music is eminently fast-forward-able. A large chunk of the movie is in Punjabi-cized Hindi so its appeal will be limited to the north of India. But the movie, like Singh Saab himself, has its heart in the right place. Most movies nowadays start well enough but trail off- Singh Saab is the opposite, with a rip-roaring second half more than makes up for the draggy first. There is a social message, and an attempt to champion people-power. Action or melodrama- Sunny shows the young guns how it is done, while Prakash Raj, who is often said the play the same character ie a funny villain, does break character here to portray genuine evil- a man you would love to hate.
It is unfortunate and silly that it all ends in a terribly one-sided showdown between Sunny and an army of thugs. I mean silly because a decade back this man destroyed the entire Pakistani army so this fight was a no contest to begin with, and unfortunate because the climax kind of apes other action movies. Having said that, it was better than what I expected, and till the climax, it did come out as a different kind of movie. Worth a watch!
"Badle se Badlav"
As the titular character, he is a tainted collector who tries to overcome his thirst for revenge against his nemesis, Bhoodev Singh, to become an agent of change. Singh Saab is a cross between any of Sunny Deol's past characters in Ghayal, Tridev, Damini or Narasimha (yes, he has been typecast so much!), and something Arvind Kejriwal should have been- leader of a people's movement, not the politician that he turned out to be. But then Kejriwal is subject for another discussion, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Farhan Akhtar be damned, there is none who can play a more authentic Sikh in Bollywood than Sunny. Alternating between genial, loving, bumbling husband and brother, and a fearless leader cum goon-crusher Sunny holds the movie together, despite a weak script and overlong romantic interludes.
Singh Saab the Great is a typically jingoistic Anil Sharma movie, but it is no Gadar- you have heard all the quotable dialogs in the trailer. The romantic back-story between a 50 year old Sunny and the 19 year old newcomer Urvashi Rautela is grating. The comedy is mostly out of place, and the music is eminently fast-forward-able. A large chunk of the movie is in Punjabi-cized Hindi so its appeal will be limited to the north of India. But the movie, like Singh Saab himself, has its heart in the right place. Most movies nowadays start well enough but trail off- Singh Saab is the opposite, with a rip-roaring second half more than makes up for the draggy first. There is a social message, and an attempt to champion people-power. Action or melodrama- Sunny shows the young guns how it is done, while Prakash Raj, who is often said the play the same character ie a funny villain, does break character here to portray genuine evil- a man you would love to hate.
It is unfortunate and silly that it all ends in a terribly one-sided showdown between Sunny and an army of thugs. I mean silly because a decade back this man destroyed the entire Pakistani army so this fight was a no contest to begin with, and unfortunate because the climax kind of apes other action movies. Having said that, it was better than what I expected, and till the climax, it did come out as a different kind of movie. Worth a watch!