Singh Saab The Great

The Anil Sharma-Sunny Deol association started with Gadar – Ek Prem Katha, over 10 years back.  2 movies (Apne – 2007 with the entire family) later they have come together yet again to give us a Punjabi-Hindi Sunny Paaji potboiler that has upgraded the Dhhai kilo ka haath to a Saade Teen kilo ka haath (2.5 kg hand to a 3.5 kg hand – in a crude translation).  They follow it up by calling it a 1.25 crore (125 million) strong hand with a reference to our burgeoning population. Corny reference in a totally corny movie.

If you have seen one movie with Sunny Paaji in the lead, you will not see too much new in any other.  If you have seen one movie with Sunny Paaji and Anil Sharma, you don’t need to see any other.  You will have the same over stated effects where Sunny Pa slams his foot on the ground and the earth quivers.  Needless to say, everyone else around him shakes in their boots as well.

So, when Singh Saab The Great starts with a scene in a local market and follows up with Sunny Pa picking up not one but two people together and slams them to the ground like a sack of potatoes – you can expect the crowd to go wild.  You on the other hand may just let out a loud yawn and say – bring it on.  Let me see what is new this time around? And you shall be kept waiting for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Saranjit Talwar aka Singh Saab (Sunny Deol) is a Collector in a small village called Bhadori somewhere in UP (one can imagine).  He is upright and even goes to the extent of having his own court sessions every week where he passes judgment on issues that come under his purview.  He doesn’t spare even his closest friends such as Gulwinder (Johnny Lever) who is slapped with a fine of Rs. 27 odd lacs for excise evasion.

So, predictably the local goon Bhoodev (Prakash Raj – predictably again) doesn’t like him too much and gets under his skin a little too much.  Enough for the Dhhai Kilo ka haath to come into effect (this is flash back.  So 3.5 and 125 million haven’t been established yet).  Bhoodev obviously doesn’t take too kindly to being slapped around and swears revenge, eventually sending our hero to jail on allegations of corruption.

To its credit, Singh Saab The Great comes back to the age old tradition of cinema.  One that has a message and a purpose.  And in many ways, it speaks the language that most people understand these days.  It asks you as the general public to take responsibility of our actions and be the change – not just demand a change. So marks on that count.

SSTG also marks the debut of the controversial Urvashi Rautela who was crowned Miss Universe India last year but disqualified later for being underage.  She is 19 now apparently.  Sunny Paaji has been known to work with new and young talent but doesn’t this border on child labour.  To Ms. Rautela’s credit, it was a solid, confident performance – enough to ensure more work in the future.

Nothing else worth mentioning really but if you are a Sunny Paaji fan, then this has to be on your must watch list.  It has everything you can expect from this genre of cinema with some improvements.  Watch it when it airs on TV and not on the big screen though.  Not really that good.  5 on 10 nevertheless.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNBpBv_FtiI