By Rama Gaind
Film: ‘Dabangg’ (Bollywood film)
Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonu Sood, Arbaaz Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar
Music: Sajid/Wajid/Lalit Pandit
Director: Abhinav Kashyap
Choreographer: Farah Khan/Raju Khan
Debutant director Abhinav Kashyap re-invents the age-old formula of a Bollywood film and delivers a larger-than-life hero against a backdrop of a boisterous soundtrack in ‘Dabangg’ (fearless).
The plot is disjointed, there’s plenty of mayhem, a dysfunctional family is at the centre of the storyline, but all that is forgotten with the star power of lead actor Salman Khan.
He is the fearless, thoroughbred entertainer. As Chulbul Pandey he steals from the bad guys and sometimes passes it on to the poor – and calls himself Robin Hood. He is cheerful, corrupt and honourable.
He delivers killer one-liners, defeats dozens of armed gunmen with a water hose, does amazing tricks with his Ray-Bans and charmingly bulldozes the local beauty into marrying him.
He is the artful dodger, adept at ducking bullets, swinging his bare fists, spewing mischievous threats and abuses, breaking the rules like a spoiled brat and singing and dancing with some amazing, gyrating moves.
The action is choreographed in comic-book fashion by S. Vijayan: in the midst of a fight if a mobile rings, Pandey pauses to admire the ring-tone and dances to it!
The dialogues, co-written by Dilip Shukla, lack symmetry, but the musical score from Sajid-Wajid is infectious and a lot of fun, especially the rollicking chartbuster ‘Munni Badnam Hui’ by Lalit Pandit.
Salman Khan is in top form and debutant Sonakshi Sinha has a marvelous screen presence as his shy, yet gritty girlfriend. Other support cast lack credibility with Sonu Sood as the bad guy adversary, Arbaaz Khan as the troubled underdog step-brother and Vinod Khanna who only express his anguish and helplessness.
The semi-rural environment of the small town – with its appropriate colourful disarray – has been well-created by cinematographer Mahesh Limaye.
Here’s the quirky bit: there’s some indefinable logic about Salman Khan’s shirt-ripping sequence: this Indian incredible hulk gets to showcase his sculpted torso withou having to unbutton it!
Screening at Greater Union, Manuka, ACT
