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As a director, Abhinav Kashyap has made it clear that he does not want to subscribe to his brother Anurag Kashyap's school of cinema and that he will not be compared with him. Here is a filmmaker who does not take himself too seriously, but knows what kind of audience he is catering to, and churns out a total entertainer for them. It is not for stimulating your intellectual senses, nor is it a non sense flick ala Om Shanti Om.

Admittedly, the story is the weak link in the movie. It is too run of the mill, too clichéd. But that is not what you are going into the movie for. The promos have set the expectations of b-grade bollywood coming to A-class movie making with the A-list actors, chart topping music and crisp editing & direction. You come in for superhero styling, rustic humor and comic book action. On all these counts, it delivers. There is not much in the plot. Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) is a step-son in a strained family and goes on to become a police officer in rural Uttar Pradesh. He is unscrupulous, but has his heart in the right place, hence the self proclaimed Robinhood Pandey. His arch rival is a small time politician Chhedy Singh, played by Sonu Sood, who, for his political motives tries to ruin everything around Chulbul's family which is already bursting at the seams. Chulbul has a love interest in the form of new comer Sonakshi Sinha who holds the screen in every scene that she is in. The movie progresses towards the Pandey family burying the hatchet and Chulbul having his revenge on the villain. A gripping story and a strong villain would have made this one a classic. But that is beside the point.

There is never a dull moment. The action is over the top and purposefully so. Some people will love it and others will have a good laugh about it. Expect an out and out mass entertainer, and that is what you get. There is action, romance and lots of laughs. There are some emotional scenes too, but they are short and abrupt to keep away from becoming overly melodramatic.

The songs are very well placed and are entertaining too. And then there is the Wild West background score that adds punch to the witty one-liners throughout. The editing is crisp and the UP hinterland has been created beautifully. All the shots are filled with extras right up to your face.

There is a lot of style to Salman's character and don't be surprised if you see Salman aficionados sporting the thin moustache and wearing their ray-ban rip-offs at the back of their shirt collars and dancing to the title song. Then there are other actors like Arbaz Khan, Anupam Kher, Om Puri, Mahesh Manjrekar,Tinu Anand and a glimpse of Mahie Gill, making sure with their performances that this does not end up as a b-grade movie with poor side actors.

There are directors who make films keeping actors in mind. We have seen this with Amithabh and of late Aamir & Shahrukh. It is about time that filmmakers capitalize on the kind of fan following that Salman has. And with Wanted, and now Dabangg, Salman has grabbed it with both hands. We only hope that the different scenes & sequences were connected to each other to make the narrative more cohesive.

And if you are looking for a message in the film, it is loud and clear. This is not Classical cinema, this is good old' classic Bollywood, on a platter. It is not a parody of the 70's cinema. Instead, it builds on that style and is seasoned with action-Rajnikant style. Whistle aloud and have fun!

Even if you do not know before going into the movie, it is evident in the first few minutes that the film draws heavily from the epic of Mahabharata. From the basic plot to the characters. Your palms will get sweaty a few times if you can relate to it.

Ranbir Kapoor is our modern day Arjun & Krishna woven into one. All characters in the movie have shades of gray and Ranbir is no exception. He is a strategist who is not afraid to go the bloody mile. Being a young actor in a multi starer can be tricky, but Ranbir does emerge on top, thereby setting the pace for more serious & deeper roles in the future. Nana Patekar is so subtle & understated that he takes the film forward effortlessly. No yelling, just shrewd smiles. Ajay Devgn proves yet again that he is past the stage where he needs screen time to justify his role. He easily enters into the skin of the modern day Karna, letting Manoj Bajpai as Duryodhan take center stage. And Bajpai, justifies every minute of his presence on screen. Arjun Rampal has his moments in the sun. Katrina impresses mainly through her improved Hindi. This is definitely not the role that she was hoping would get her a national award.

Subtlety is not a mark of Prakash Jha's cinema. From Gangajal to Apaharan to Raajneeti, all are in your face dramas. Raajneeti, if I may say, would be his most commercial outing in some time. We have very mainstream actors, a grand scale in the sheer number of crowds, bloody violence, cars going up in flames & people killing each other left, right & center.

Even for its 3 hour run time, some scenes & sequences do seem rushed in a bit. Nasserudin Shah has as much a presence in the film as he has on the posters. He is not in the film if you are five minutes late to the movie. All our political men are ultra virile & the females- ultra fertile. There is also a needless club song. Then, there are car bombs & a climactic gun battle that is a bit over the top just like all Prakash Jha films. It could have been kept tighter & more believable.

But that said, the film is a gripping tale with very intensely executed pieces and careful attention to detail. The basic premise remains that of the Mahabharata, but the film is not limited to that. It is fast paced and there is seldom a loose moment. It is not Jha's best work, not even close. But I am tempted to rate it highly for the power packed performances & the gripping screenplay.

I say 3.5 on 5

There are just four characters in the movie. Vishnu, played by Abhay Deol, wants to do more than just waste his time selling herbal oil as his father does before him. So, he volunteers for a friend to deliver across the desert an old truck which is a mobile cinema. The film is then about his journey, the movies that he plays & more importantly, the people that he meets on the way.

We have seen bits of brilliance from Satish Kaushik in the past, from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro to Calendar in Mr. India, but I think this is the one that he will be most remembered for as an actor. Cast as a veteran mechanic, Kaushik plays a central role in taking the movie in a different direction than the protagonist has planned to. He has been cast very well along with the little boy that Vishnu picks up early in his journey. Both these characters provide for the lighter moments in the film while also inducing some thought provoking dialogue. There is also scope for a female lead. A tribal whose husband was slain over a water dispute some years ago. As she mentions that she too wants to get lost in the magic of cinema, one can't help but wonder if there is a deeper meaning to this sentence. And this deep meaning dialogue is a standard feature of the film.

Wide angle views of the vastness of the desert that lead to nothingness in the desert and a set of women treading along for days in search of water are brilliantly executed. And, other than the road & the movies, they are a common string throughout the film.

The film exists at many levels. At the most superficial level, it appears to be a subtle comedy with situational jokes and a bit of slapstick too. You dig a little, and you find that it is a person's journey to finding himself by having to deal with an old truck, rough, dry weather and some people who have been through their share of pain & suffering and how they still manage to be at peace and look forward to some elusive tranquility.

Dig a little deeper and you find the film is about some inherent social problems that still affect most of rural & tribal India. That something as basic as water can be a reason for murder & arson is hard to imagine but it is brought to us with a lot of sensitivity. How the lead characters almost die of thirst, how they almost get killed for trying to steal water all help appreciate a problem that is alien to most of us.

Dig a bit more and we find that Indian cinema is trying to usher in the seemingly selfish directors who make films from the heart with a message that they want to send across to anyone who tries to understand their cinema. There is no plot in the movie that would build up into something big. For a film like this, there has to be no plot. Very few directors can do it and get away with it. It is a movie that should go down as one that shifted or at least tried to shift the paradigm of Indian cinema.

That said there is much that the director could do better explaining & elaborating a little. Like what is the protagonist actually wanting to do with the truck, how does a particular mela (caravan fair) disappear overnight and mostly, why such a brilliant film seem a bit too long even for its 95 minute run time.

It is most definitely a lesson in cinematographic excellence. One would just hope that it would be a complete movie in itself too.