To say that Singh is Kinng is one of the most anticipated movies of 2008 is an understatement. First of all understand that this review contains the review of the movie without actually going into the frame by frame details which you can find on any other website.
What does a common man need to see when he spends his hard-earned money? Of course dhammal and masala entertainment. I for one would prefer that anyday over serious movies which I can watch on a DVD :). I want a paisa-wasool entertainer in the mould of say Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Priyadarshan or even David Dhawan. Before the previous line ticks of any debate, let me be clear that I am not trying to compare the 3 directors mentioned.
So does Singh Is Kinng give me what I am looking for?? Read on....
I for one watches this movie yesterday in Irving, Texas on a thursday on the 8:00 show which is even before the movie was released in India....don't ask me how/why but that's the case :). I went there with my wife and also my 3 yr old daugther who is a fan of such masala songs and wants to hear the Singh Is Kinng songs in the car...anyways now onto the movie --
Most of you would be familiar with the story of the movie which is the hero goes from Punjab to Australia to bring one of his villagers who is a King (Don). Ok...so onto the characters -
Akshay fits the role of Happy Singh to a T. He has played such roles before and this one is another feather in his cap. His comic timing and his screen presence reminds me of only person that Bollywood has ever known as the real king which is (not Shahrukh unfortunately) but of the Big B when people used to flock to cinemas (before and during the start of the VCR era). Oh...yes that is a big statement but he is awesome and I don't see anyone really doing it better than him (including Shahrukh) ....
Katrina looks amazingly beautiful on the screen. The amazing combo of Akshay and Katrina is at their best once again. Katrina has a lot of English lines that she is comfortable with and her role is justified from the fact that in this movie she is from brought-up in Australia.
Soonu Sood is an actor we saw in Jodha Akbar in the role of 'Sujamal'. Here he is the main King in Australia. Notice his scenes rock and brings life to the movie when Akshay is in front of him :).
Om Puri as we all know is an excellent actor (remember his scenes in Hera Pheri) is Akshay's friend who goes to Australia and another country (won't give out the secret here). Unforuantely he is pushed out of the movie in the second half and not fully utilized but I guess there is a reason for it which is next.
Javed Jaffrey, Kamal Chopra, Yashpal Sharma, Sudhanshu Pandey, Neha Dhupia all as the King's men and woman have their own scenes of realization and that is why Om Puri gets.....as mentioned above
Kiron Kher, Ranvir Shorey are good and make up as the fillers for the story to proceed.
Music and songs are zabardast as follows in the order they appear in the movie -
1. Bhootni ke: Mika Singh's tiger remix is used in the movie rather than Daler Mehndi's but chalta hai...bhai bhai mein. Not sure why this one was preferred over the other one
2. Jee Karda: Labh Janjua and Suzanne (Mahiya fame) bring a nice fusion of western and desi
lines and the song looks good on screen
3. Bas Ek Kinng: Mika is back with Neeraj Shreedhar (who is Pritam's lucky charm) and as
expected input from Hard Kaur who seems to be all over these days. The song has been a big hit since the audio release and the picturization is awesome! Hard Kaur's lines are lipped by Neha Dhupia.
4. Talli Hua: Again Labh Janjua and Neeraj Shreedhar take on the dance floor in a disco which
Akshay and Katrina dance to...nice picturization
5. Teri Ore: a melodious song sung effectively by Rahat Fateh Ali Kh anand Shreya Ghosa. Since this song is towards the end, the director realized the importance of keeping this song to a
minimum and only one paragraph which is excellent bit of editing. Interestingly this song seems to be picturized in Egypt while the previous and next scenes are in Australia......
6. Singh is Kinng: isn't that we all were waiting for? As per the trend we see Akshay and Snoop D-o-g-g rap to this song in only half the screen while the bottom half is the ending credits. An
amalgamtion of desi punjabi music and hip-hop at its best!! That leaves us wanting to see more
and in full screen just like I would have liked to watch may of Askhay's other songs in the past
years.
Finally a few words about Pritam who seems to have mastered the Punjabi music after his success of Jab We Met. This is a fabulous album composition that blends in great with the picturization of the songs which is lavish in nature and the director has left no stone unturned to make this a success. Pritam seems to climb one success ladder after another. Kind of reminds me of Himesh Reshamiya from a couple of years back where everything he touched turned gold!
Now what about the director Annes Baznee? He is come a long way in terms of directing films from Pyar to hoona hi tha to No Entry to Welcome and now this one. He is a real king who needs to be saluted as well!!
Vipul Shah's friendship with Akshay is well known and they have had a series of hits which prompts them to work together. He seems to have a very good mind for scripts and directors! Keep up the good work Vipul!
Action sequences are good but not great. It kind of reminded me of Akki's action sequences in the yester-years when he did his Khiladi films (most recent would be Khiladi 420...remember his airplane scene)
Paisa-wasool factor: Reading this review you would have guessed that it is indeed a ful-to-timepass film with witty dialogs. The editing is done at a fast pace and movie transcends rapidly across its frames. Most importantly there is no vulgarity which would automatically qualify it as a 'family film'. I heard some people say after the movie that this was a Punjabi movie which I beg to differ since I could understand each and every word of what was said in the movie. So basically the mantra is leave your brains home and get ready for a big ride of fun and frolic. Make way for the new entertainer Akshay Kumar who proves himself with hits after hits. Let's not get into the argument about Tashan (if you know what I mean!). Also the movie moves at a fast pace and one keeps longing for more and more. Before you can digest a scene and finish chuckling on a dialog you come across another one.
Last but not the least I loved the fact the before the movie started there was "Jana Gana Mana" India's national anthem which prompt everyone to stand-up. Once that was done we had quite a few folks appreciating this happening!
What this movie stays away from: First and foremost it does not really preach about being a good person. It is just that our hero Happy Singh is that way. There is a "Ma" factor but it is not hammered upon a lot. Then there are a few scenes with the King's hunchmen that you feel could get a bit serious but they are never stretched to an extent where you get bored. None of the songs seem like they are forced upon and I did not notice anyone leaving the hall during the songs except yours truely who thought that it "Jee Karda" was a good time to grab Samosas, popcorn and hotdog for the family.
Bonus: Trailer of a couple of movies...
1. Chandni Chowk To China for which rumours are that it is a real story based on Akshay Kumar's life
2. Kidnap which stars Sanjay Dutt and Imraan Khan who plays a negative role. The promos looked refreshing fresh and towards the end I realized that the director is Sanjay Gadhvi (Dhoom series fame).
Koustubh's rating: I would give it a 4.5 but let me clarify this. I cannot think of what could make it a 5 star rating ;)
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