Singh, o rei

Akshay Kumar has steadily established himself well as a bankable comedy star. Most of his recent movies; be it Welcome, Bhool Bhulaiyaa or its likes have less to with brains and more with goofy stuff. Not to say that I’m against no-brainers; note, flicks like these are tailor made for box-office performance! Who, except for hapless multiplex audience paying 200 bucks to watch it, would really care whether it makes sane sense!

Singh is King is one such movie off the comic assembly line! Akshay plays his usual Machismo, this time a Punjabi Munda, Happy Singh. The villagers love his innocence but are irritated by the damage he causes uncannily. Soon, they find a pretext to get him out of the village, to bring back a crime boss ‘King’ Lucky Singh (Sonu Sood) who the villagers feel has tarnished the repute of their village and their ethnic group.

A comedy of errors lands Happy and his buddy (Om Puri) in Egypt instead of Australia, where he bumps into a damsel Sonia (Katrina Kaif) and is instantly smitten. The story moves to Australia where the duo discover that the ‘King’ is in no mood to return to his village. A series of events leads to the king getting injured and going into Coma. As he passes out, he points at Happy. The gang takes it that Lucky has chosen his successor.

Just as happy sets out to do good to a world of evil Lucky controlled, Sonia returns engaged, our hero is heartbroken. But he’s still at his comic best with full scale Sardar bravado! Then, there are the usual dream sequences, bhangda dance numbers and goofy humor that may hardly tickle you. But, what does this movie have that makes it tick? Akshay! As much as you find the script stupid, you’ll adore Happy Singh!

Although this flick is one of those run of the mill movies which you may never remember later, you may still find it worthwhile to watch it on cheap tickets. Reasons, the lead star rocks, the dance number Jee Karda in Egypt is neat. Katrina is the usual eye candy. As for the rest, Javed Jaffery, Kirron Kher, Om Puri, Neha Dhupia and Ranvir Shorey are nothing awesome, but they don’t bore you. My bet, try it out, albeit with low expectations!

Singh is Kinng,directed by Anees Bazmee has no story basically.But this one could be called a Kinng sized entertainer. It offers loads of big laughs,some action sequences,a little drama and lots of romance and last but not the least it has the biggest entertainer of Bollywood-Akshay Kumar. Direction by Anees Bazmee is excellent. The music is chart buster with all songs topping. The Cinematagropher has done a excellent job.The scenic beauty of Australia has been captured very well. Special mention to the dialogs writer who does an amazing job. Performance wise-Akshay Kumar is the Daddy of Entertainment.He simply rocks!Katrina Kaif adds glamor value to the film.Om Puri and Kirron Kher are superb in their respective roles.Sonu Sood is very good.Neha Dhupia looks gorgeous.Javed Jaffery is excellent.Ranvir Shorey is okay in a brief role.Yashpal Sharma,Sudhanshu Pandey,Kamal Chopra and Manoj Pahwa are good.

Overall Singh is Kinng is an entertainer.

Story/ Screenplay/ Script:: Long story short - its gone to dogs. End result, the movie is "all form - no beer".

This movie is an another example to prove that star-power coupled with marketing can set the cash register on fire (mini-me of Om Shanti Om?). Overseas I am sure, it has raked moolah in loads. Akki proves that he is second to none when it comes to punching above one's weight.

Akki-Katrina:: Undoubtedly, they share a sizzling chemistry.

Om Puri/ Kiron Kher/ Ranvir Shorey:: These names are synonymous with "powerhouse of talent". It would be an "understatement" to mention that they were grossly under-utilised.

Javed Jaffery:: Why Javed why?

Vipul:: You were fantastic as a director in "Namaste London", why on earth did you hand over the reigns?

Anees Bazmi:: Suggest you go back to writing or follow Priyan's footsteps (of remaking South movies viz. "No Entry"). Needless to say, it would be blessing to the audience.

For those who like that kind of stuff, this is yet another mindless film masquerading as a comedy. And all the hype yet again reveals something very slapstick, very ordinary. The first half is not so bad, if you don't mind a little slapstick and some very Punjabi humour. The second half just deteriorates into unnecessary weeping, melodrama and one implausible situation after another.

Its not without its moments though…the lingo is very rustic Punjabi and raises a lot of laughs. 'Chehra itna bhola, andar bam ka gola' or 'lady Bheem' were both delightful descriptors of Katrina. Names like Happy, Lucky and Mika cannot belong to any other community in the world. Pankaj Uddas, with his mournful, morbid stories, was a very nice touch. Javed Jaffri's removal of all guns from his person was funny. And the scene in the second half, involving Lucky Singh on a wheelchair being used as a waiter, was absolutely hilarious.

However, there was a tendency to degenerate into slapstick (the film begins with the oldest slapstick routine in the book with Akshay chasing a hen through the streets of his village), the situations become more and more flimsy and I really didn't understand the need to switch gears and become so emotional in the second half – it absolutely ruined the whole film. Katrina & Neha looked lovely through the film, Akshay holds his own and most people acted decently, except Ranvir, who looks out of sorts and a bit miscast. The music is a split between the good (the title song and Jee Karda), the ugly (the Snoopy Dogg song and 'Talli hua') and the OK (most others), though all songs were forced into the film In some ways though, the movie is almost like an ad for Punjab and its delightful, over-sized, gregarious residents. I remember when a restaurant chain called 'Punjabi by Nature' opened up in Delhi and quickly established itself as an iconic Punjabi place with its vodka-shot Gol Gappa's, over-sized Naan's (pls never order 2) and tangy butter chicken. This movie has already, due to its title, established itself as an icon of all Sikh's and has been parodied / used and re-used in news channels, normal conversations, posters, SMS jokes etc. Its commercial success is almost assured. Pity though that the imaginative title and the lovely designer turban's was followed by something so trite, so ordinary. Surely the kingly Singh's of the world deserved better.

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'Balle balle te shava shava!' 'Oye! Chak De Phatte!' This is what you will hear loud and clear while watching this movie through out. 'Singh is Kinng' is a true example of how you package the ordinary idea with loads of no-logic but damn funny humor, jazzed up with some peppy nos, put a big tag of superstar and wrap it up with oodles of hype. This movie has created history in breaking all time box office records specially. The mass hysteria of Akshay Kumar is unstoppable. He is the next big thing and currently, Indian movie industry is betting more than Rs 150 crores on him.

The story of 'Singh is Kinng' is simple. Akki is a panic button for his village. People are so bugged with his non-sense that they decided to send him out of the village. They some how emotionally convinced him to go abroad and bring back another son of soil who is now an underworld don. Om Puri also got tagged along with Akki in this journey. In between, he meets his love interest Katrina and what follows is a no sense roller coaster ride where not only he has to bring the village son back to his roots but also, win his girl's heart.

It might sound nothing great then how come its such a big hit breaking all overseas records? The answer lies in two powerful words- Akki and the music. Akki aka Akhay Kumar is the current king of Bollywood. He is power packed and Singh is Kinng is a true example to prove it. He'd hold the front all alone with his witty performance. Katrina too has her moments but just moments. Kiran Kher is a sheer waste of talent. Om Puri is just fine and Ranvir Shorey is something i don't even want to talk about it. What a waste of talent. Javed Jaffery is funny and played an interesting character. This movie is not focused on building characters because it can only happen with a good script. But here it's not about script but Akki and only Akki.

Music is really nice and has lots of variety. Pritam has done it again and has given another super hit soundtrack. 'Teri Or' is a surprise delight with beautiful vocals, music and video. The reason why I like this song is not just the melody but an add on of some Rajasthani folk song playing in the background. Another interesting song is 'Jee Karda'. Solid Punjabi beats forcing you to break free and just dance. It's extremely catchy. The title track could've been better if they've got some other singer than Mika. He did a horrible job. Snoop Dogg did his first act in Bollywood singing the remix version of title song which is way better than the original. Another very interesting song is 'Bhutani Ke' which is very funny. It's a leg pulling song for the groom at his marriage. I can imagine this song getting played at every marriage and grooms just getting embarrassed.

It's an interesting movie and I advise every one to go with their group of friends and you'll be coming out laughing from the movie halls. Akshay has reached a status where he should take movies where he gets a support from a good script and some less silly things to be seen in the movie. Apart from this, i don't thing any other reason why you should not and go watch this full time pass movie.