'Singh is Kinng' : A One-time-watch Popcorn Entertainer amidst Colossal Hype

                                                                  
 
by Sujay Iyer - Mangalore

Sujay Iyer, a V semester student of MBBS at KMC Medical College, Mangalore. He was born in Bhopal. He has represented School in quiz competitions, scored 94.3% in CIGKL General Knowledge Exam, got through in Manipal Entrance and JIPMER, Pondicherry, represented college in twenty-twenty cricket tournament.  His hobbies include writing, movies, cricket and singing.

Sujay will write film reviews exclusively for daijiworld.com readers

Aug 9, 2008

Opening this Friday amidst colossal hype is the new Akshay Kumar starrer, 'Singh is Kinng'  The film has been built and marketed as a celebration to Punjabi culture, but unfortunately it does not live up to its great expectations and instead turns out to be a decent, just above average comedy.

Directed by Anees Bazmee, the man who has given us fantastic films like 'Aankhen' 'Deewangi' and others 'Singh is Kinng' is your complete time-pass comedy which every family will enjoy. Bazmee teaming up with Vipul Shah has stuck to the commercially-bankable formula of slapstick comedy with an established star cast and a mindless ending, although, I feel the plot is very similar to the previous Akshay-Katrina films like 'Welcome' 'Namastey London'.

The first half of the movie is pure joy, it's almost hilarious. The funny moments are spot on and the direction is admirable.

What lets the movie down is the second half. In trying to make the film look like a heart-warming comedy which has a touching climax, the director flounders and destroys the goodwill set up in the first half. The reforming of the gangsters is completely unconvincing and poor screenplay just adds on to the misery of the film.

The movie is Akshay Kumar's tour de force as an actor. He is simply outstanding in his role as the clueless, truthful, 'do-good' Sardar. He remains very honest to his character and his comic timing is undoubtedly the best in present Bollywood. He is becoming a very serious contender to the SRK throne. The chemistry between him and Om Puri is marvelous.

The supporting cast of Puri, Sonu Sood, Javed Jaffery, Kiron Kher, Yashpal Sharma, Neha Dhupia and Sudhanshu Pandey has put in a formidable performance. Katrina Kaif looks gorgeous throughout the movie, but again fails to deliver a decent effort.

In all, 'Singh is Kinng' is not a film you will remember and cannot come under what is termed as good cinema. It is a pleasant one-time-watch popcorn entertainer. I sincerely hope that Akshay Kumar does not repeat a film like this for a long time and strive for a masterpiece that has been missing in his impressive resume since 'Hera Pheri'.