‘Singham Again’ Review: A Cop Universe Asking To Be Jailed

Director: Rohit Shetty
Writers: Yunus Sajawal, Abhijeet Khuman, Kshitij Patwardhan, Sandeep Saket, Anusha Nandakumar, Milap Zaveri, Shantanu Srivastava, Vidhi Ghodgaonkar, Rohit Shetty
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Tiger Shroff, Akshay Kumar, Jackie Shroff, Ravi Kishan
Language: Hindi

Maybe it’s not the best idea to start a review with: I’m speechless. I’d like to be more nuanced than that. I strive to be a little more dignified. But it’s hard with Singham Again. It’s the kind of movie that drags you down to its level and keeps you there. The bar is so low that it may as well become a dive bar. If this movie were a person, it’d be on trial for irresponsible content and incitement — only to be released with a pat on the head once the authorities discover it’s underaged. The fifth installment of Rohit Shetty’s masochistic Cop Universe uses mythology as a shield, mediocrity as a cape, masculinity as an excuse, patriotism as a helmet and religion as a sword. The stance is so unsubtle that the ‘Interval’ logo appears in white and saffron without the green. It’d be offensive if it wasn’t so childish.

Speaking of colours, the Rang De Basanti (2006) treatment is undone by the Ramayana-fuelled story. A Ram-Leela stage play — in which the actors look like they’d rather text each other — is intercut with DCP Bajirao Singham’s (Ajay Devgn) modern mission to rescue his wife Avni (Kareena Kapoor Khan) from the hairy clutches of a Sri Lanka-based villain. The parallels and metaphors are questionable at best. Naturally, Ravana is a vengeful terrorist whose real name is revealed to be Zubair Hafiz (Arjun Kapoor). And naturally, the film opens in Kashmir, where the term “Naye Bharat ka naya Kashmir (New Kashmir of a New India)” is said by a local youngster who remarks that “stone-pelting is so old-fashioned”. You get the gist. If you don’t, the writing leaves no room for doubt or anti-nationalism. There are even shades of Ram Setu (2022) in how it goes out of its way to prove that the Ramayana is not fiction. Singham and his ‘army’ — including a Hanuman-coded Simmba (Ranveer Singh) and Lakshmana-coded Satya (Tiger Shroff) — are shown visiting holy sites in the middle of the small matter that is the abduction of cultural minister Avni. Priorities, priorities.

The bigger problem with Singham Again is its poor sense of craft. Shetty likes his vehicles and volume, but his recent titles lack the massy timing he once thrived on. Forget slow-mo intro shots and punchy set pieces, it’s the drunken drones and deafening chants that do the heavy lifting. You know a film is trouble when the bad guy is so ineffective that the score and frame rates perform for him; the pre-entry aura of this demon is built up by so many people that you wonder if the film might have been better off leaving him to our imagination. What if everyone kept hyping up the guy but he just never showed up? You know it’s trouble when this bearded monster says “dekhte hai (we’ll see)” as a response to a victim who taunts him about Ravana always losing. You know it’s trouble when Singham’s son (who explains the term “situationship” to his dad) sounds like the sensible one for calling out his parents’ values and for planning to study abroad.

You know it’s trouble when the violence looks uncharacteristically ugly and rushed; the action in the climax is a blur that doesn’t know which hero to focus on. You know it’s trouble when the woman is abducted not once but twice — the second time from an ashram so ornate that it literally invites attention in a dark forest (the jungle, not the cake). You know it’s trouble when Singham moves slower than the camera around him. You know it’s trouble when Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor Khan are mechanical footnotes in a film that relies on Ranveer Singh’s extended cameo. For a film that has nine (!) writers, it’s fitting that Singh’s tomfoolery feels entirely improvised. You also know it’s trouble when the production value of the amateur play is not too different from the production value of the film. Most of all, you know it’s trouble when the shameless viewer behind you is yapping away on her phone, but for once, you don’t feel like stopping her. Her voice becomes a welcome distraction from the toxic chaos of Singham Again. If anything, it improves the viewing experience. I may have been speechless throughout, but I’m glad she wasn’t.