*“Mammoth Expectations”, ** the feelings of the majority of people who gathered to watch this 10:30 Thursday night preview of **Singh is
Kinng** can be described aptly in these two aforementioned words. Well this was
certainly bound to happen, after all with **Akshay Kumar** delivering back to back hits, **Anees Bazmee
*hitting bull’s eye twice in a row with **No Entry(2005)** and **Welcome(2007)**, the songs already rocking all charts, people were
expecting nothing less than a thunderstorm, but all they receive was a light
breeze which wasn’t exactly putrid but it just falls short of expectations.
The story starts with Lucky Singh **(Sonu Sood), ** the king of Australian underworld displaying some mid-air
daredevilry, something Akshay used to do in his Khiladi Days. The starting of the
movie sets the tone for a high end actioner, but then people who know about
Bazmee sensed that this is nothing, but a facade. Comedy is what Bazmi’s forte is
and that has to appear sooner or later. Well it did come as soon as the title
credits were over. Comes into picture a serenic Punjab
village with *Veer Zaaraesque sarson ke khet* in the background, and then enters Happy Singh**(Akshy Kumar)**, the jovial big-hearted sardar who always gets himself in
troubles somehow, only because he wanted to help others. Getting weary of Happy's shenanigans the villagers
soon spurn a plan to send Happy to Australia to bring Lucky back. Thus
Happy and Rangeela(the ever dependent **Om Puri**) sets on a journey which goes
wrong from the word “Go”. They reach Egypt
instead of Australia,
where Happy meets Sonia(**Katrina Kaif)** and gets swept away by her beauty*(but
then, who wouldn’t)* and whom he describes as “*yeh hai asli sardarni, bhola
chehra, te andar se bum ka gola(lol!)*”. Anyway when they finally manage to
reach Lucky’s house, he refuses to come back to India and kicks them out, but
then fate had something else in mind, Lucky is attacked and is reduced to a
semi- conscious state, and this renders Happy as the new King(*in a hilarious
sequence*). After that the story goes
completely awry, now it’s all about Happy exhorting and making his friends
realize the sins they have committed and trying to get things straight between Sonia
and her boyfriend Puneet(**Ranvir Shorey**). No prize for guessing the ending,
lucky is recovered, Happy is married to Sonia and they all go back to Punjab.
The film seems to be made with an agenda of portraying
Akshay Kumar as the new *Punjab da Puttar(Gone are Sunny Paaji’s days!)* and
also tapping up the over seize market(*SRK’s pet terrritory*). Well, in order
to that, somewhere the makers involuntarily let the script slipped away. Especially post
interval portions which drag most of the time. Also some characters were written
so shoddily that they are ultimately reduced to mere caricature. For example what
was the need to show** Sudhanshu Pandey’**s girlfriend just for one scene.(*What
was the need to show **Sudhanshu Pandey** in the first place!*). **Yashpal Sharma**’s ever
tragic tales get irritating after a while. The biggest example of a bedraggled character is of **Javed Jaffrey**’s, the sudden shift just before the climax with Javed bursting on the floor with **Harman**(or shall I say **Hritik**) like moves(*reminded me of his
rock n’ roll days*) and his character getting back to square one again in the climax
is anything, but funny. **Ranvir Shorey** does fine in an another perplexed character, but thankfully he knew his job well enough not to let the beans spill. There was so much buzz around **Miss Cleavage Dhupia** being touted as the next action girl. Well in an industry where by just doing a rope enabled mid-air kick in **DUS**, **Shilpa Shetty** gets the title of Desi **Angelina Jolie, ** then Miss Dhupia sure can be a conterder for next **Bond Girl**, after all she knows how to(*"and where to", watch the movie for further clarifications!*) hold a gun. Another irksome factor is **Kirron Kher**, though the lady is a fine performer, but watching her again and again playing the same stereotyped punjabi mother is like watching **Rajpal Yadav** screaming and screeching in every other movie. The fight sequences in the movie though well conceived are
completely forced. The starting chase as well as the chase in the mall is so
completely out of place, that one can’t help but feeling sympathy with director’s
desparation.
However on the brighter side also, we have a number of
factors. The dialogues(especially of **Akshay** and** Om Puri**) are well written.
Most of their dialogues are in “*khadi punjabi*” and though a bit crude at
occasions they sync well with the mood of the movie. The way **Sonu Sood**’s
character(the entire wheelchair portion) was written is an example that **Bazmee** stills holds ample command over comedy. **Om Puri **is excellent in a character
which can be termed as an extension of his “**Hera-Pheri**” role.** Katrina Kaif**, like all her other movies is just a flower in
a showcase. This lady never gets tired of running around trees(*Pyramids, in
this case! That’s one hell of a promotion!*). However it is always better to
do what you are good at*(looking ravishing, smiling without any reasons and
laughing abundantly during songs*) rather than taking a big risk(*such as trying
to act!*). Now the biggest strength of the movie- “what else but **Akshay Kumar**”.
The guy just can’t go wrong these days. He gets into the mood of the character
and delivers a performance that is worth accolades. He is soon becoming **Amitabh*
of late seventies where even in a bad movie you can’t help yourself, but taking
his performance back home(remember a catastrophe called “**Tashan**”). *Overall the
movie is enjoyable is parts and can be seen once for comedy and of course ***Aksahy
Kumar.*
