Simmba 2018 Movie Review

The new pot-boiler from Rohit Shetty is the latest to join the list of pure masala entertainers. With Simmba, we see an adorable homage to the lion king while Ranvir Singh, the lead seems more concerned about the feel of his character than the way he looks and portrays it. The extremely energetic Singh makes for a good lead actor as we have come to realise, embraces the trashy 80s-remake madness and creates an immoral and wayward wise cracker more who is more Reynolds of Deadpool than Devgn of Singham. You could book your tickets online to win thrilling movie offers and jaw-dropping deals on your next purchase. After tragedy strikes too close to home than he would like, Sangram “Simmba” Bhalerao, a dishonest police officer and the movie’s lead is forced to take action and mend his ways to take on the bad guys.

This is a derivative nay spinoff of Rohit Shetty’s worryingly successful Singham movies. Some might have had high expectations from the last release of the year but I for one can say with all honesty that it falls quite short.

MOVIE SIMMBA
GENRE ACTION AND ENTERTAINMENT, DRAMA, KIDS AND FAMILY
DIRECTOR ROHIT SHETTY
PRODUCED BY ROHIT SHETTY

KARAN JOHAR

HIROO YASH JOHAR

APOORVA MEHTA

STORY BY YUNUS SAJAWAL

SAJID-FARHAD

MOVIE BASED ON ORIGINAL PLOT WITH ACTION SEQUENCES BASED ON TELUGU- LANGUAGE FILM TEMPER
MUSIC BY SONGS:

TANISHK BAGCHI

LIJO GEORGE – DJ CHETAS

S. THAMAN

SCORE:

AMAR MOHILE

CHANDAN SAXENA

S. THAMAN

LYRICS BY SHABBIR AHMED, RASHMI VIRAG, KUMAAR AND KUNAAL VERMA.
STARRING RANVIR SINGH

SARA ALI KHAN

AJAY DEVGN

SONU SOOD

AKSHAY KUMAR

ASHUTOSH RANA

SUCHITA BANDEKAR

SIDDHARTHA JADHAV

ASHWINI KALSEKAR

PRODUCTION COMPANIES DHARMA PRODUCTIONS

ROHIT SHETTY PICTUREZ

DISTRIBUTION RELIANCE ENTERTAINMENT
RUNNING TIME 159 MINUTES
LANGUAGE HINDI

Simmba, our typical protagonist is a police officer who hails from the same town as the upstanding and righteous Singham, but shares none of the latter’s morally upright and impartial qualities. He is our typical street-smart orphan turned cop with decent comic timing. This antihero is an ACP no less, who shows up in a police station in Goa to do the following:

  1. ogle at pretty ladies
  2. mouth some really weird dialogues
  3. play around with crooks and outlaws before ridding them for good

Familiar set-pieces and lack of an exciting plot give a sense of “and we’ve seen it all before” – The deadbeat cop sheds his old corrupt ways and emerges as the saviour of the submissive and poor. The clashes between the bad guys and the cops, overtly coated with cheesy overused one-liners seem tiresome. The background score is loud and dolefully drowns everything out.

The movie comes with plenty of dramatic moments and has Ranvir Singh struggling to make the most of what little was handed to him. Many of the moments occur in between scenes full of action.  Overall a below average pre-visited plot with numerous not-so-subtle reminders. In one particular scene, the original cop (Singham) appears, just to show the rookie exactly how it’s done.

The actress Sara Ali Khan is good here, attractive and atypical. Making you wish she had more to do, than just repeatedly bring up her late father, some ‘encounter cop’ with legendary qualities in a dreamy way. Her role is to lovingly build up and romanticise staged brutality. Khan once again makes an impression albeit a small one and takes charge as the one to initiate romance making our vociferous hero utterly tongue-tied.

CHARACTERS

RANVIR SINGH ACP SANGRAM “SIMMBA” BHALERAO
SARA ALI KHAN SHAGUN SATHE
AJAY DEVGN DCP BAJIRAO SINGHAM
SONU SOOD DURVA RANADE
AKSHAY KUMAR VEER SOORYAVANSHI
ASHUTOSH RANA NITYANAND MOHILE
SUCHITA BANDEKAR MRS MOHILE
SIDDHARTHA JADHAV SANTOSH TAVDE
ASHWINI KALSEKAR JUDGE SMITA PALUKAR
VIJAY PATKAR ALOK BORKAR
SAURABH GOKHALE GAURAV RANADE
ASHOK SAMARTHA LAWYER JOSHI
VAIDEHI PARSHURAMI AAKRUTI DAVE
VRAJESH HIRJEE
NEHA MAHAJAN KAVYA
NANDU MADHAV AAKRUT’S FATHER
ARUN NALAWADE VAMAN RAO
UDAY TIKEKAR HOME MINISTER
ANIL MANGE PURAB
ULKA GUPTA NANDINI
VIPIN SHARMA CORPORATOR CAMERON
GANESH YADAV LAWYER SAVALKAR
AARTI KULKARNI GOOD FOOD LADY
SAHIL JOSHI CHOTU
AMRIT SINGH SADASHIV RANADE
SHRI SWARA DUBEY DURVA’S WIFE
SARITA JOSHI DURVA’S MOTHER
SNEHA JAMES LADY COP GAURI
DHEERAJ RAVJEET SINGH
TUSSHAR KAPOOR CAMEO
KUNAL KHEMU CAMEO
SHREYAS TALPADE CAMEO
ARSHAD WARSI CAMEO
KARAN JOHAR CAMEO IN “AANKH MAREY”

THE VERDICT

Simmba makes the rational Indian audience wonder at what point will a mainstream “star” like Shahrukh or Salman or our latest entrant Ranvir Singh would be a part of something more memorable. The laughs quickly dry up when the plot takes an inevitable turn for the serious. This could have been disastrous, given that there’s an off chance to predict the tragic fate awaiting a local girl once Simmba starts calling her a sister and we’re all familiar to the concept of how the “hero” will kick the doors open at the precise time or when he’ll earn respect from the honest cops. Ranvir Singh dials up the intensity with his passionate declarations and earnest acting, which allows the show to stay compelling.

The film has a good tempo and the presence of with a genuinely charismatic lead helps. While the actual story — about a bad cop who suddenly changes tactics and starts avenging rapes — is neither interesting nor original. Shetty keeps it somewhat entertaining, even if the film is longer – with 159 minutes of running time than was actually necessary.

CONCLUSION

Although the need for these throwback films is still open to debate, and it is unquestionably problematic to see the way something violent and brutal like rape used as a mere trigger for the leading man to turn good, but, as it positions, Simmba means well and is not only ahead of the Singham genre of films, but much superior to the plots of the genre blockbusters, Dabanng as well. Overall on a strictly personal level — a below average pre-visited plot with some amount of reprieve solely due to the presence of the hilarious Singh who walks lives and breathes Simmba. A pure one time watch with family and friends, Ranvir Singh fans might still want to catch this one. A word for the wise, leave your thinking caps outside before you enter the multiplexes so you could enjoy the entertaining drama on offer.


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