Simmba
Hindi (U/A)
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Sara Ali Khan, Sonu Sood
Director: Rohit Shetty
Rating: 2/5
He is a cop, but his uniform remains safely on the hanger.
Ranveer Singh plays the indisputable Rohit Shetty baby till the interval... Dance, drive, joke, mock, plot, whatnot. Then he sets out to save the izzat of Indian women. “Aala re aala Simmba aala,” the background score drills home the safety anthem in loop, just in case one misses the saviour or his swagger.
The officer loots without remorse (“I’m no Robin Hood, I’m here to make money”). And it takes a rape to awaken his conscience. That’s also reason enough to bring on the candles, vigils and Nirbhaya placards. In no time, the orphan lawman is surrounded by so many mothers and sisters whose honour is at his ‘police’-tattooed hands. Simm-bah!
Now, subtle doesn’t fit in Shetty’s scheme of things. Simmba’s shift from flashy to kitschy is as unpalatable as his newfound loyalty for khaki. And suddenly, there are scores of preachy women and judges who take up the feminist cudgels. This is also the movie where its heroine (Sara Ali Khan, fetching but given short shrift) plays a caterer who feeds an entire police station, but never gets to sink her teeth into the ‘empowerment’ tale.
Meanwhile, Ranveer takes his place in the sun from start to finish. His sheer physicality and energy levels give some fleets of flourish to the insipid rape-revenge drama.
In the end, Simmba seals his territory in slo-mo, while the original Singham (Ajay Devgn, in another old hat outing) roars back to show who is the boss. As the two retreat, another rises in the horizon, threatening a third installment.
A pride of lions (crowd, if you may) in a Shetty circus of excesses.