‘Singham Again’ Movie Review: Ajay Devgn and His Starry Friends Can’t Salvage This Loud and Hollow Action Spectacle (LatestLY Exclusive)

Singham Again Movie Review: The biggest mystery about this crap... sorry, cop universe movie isn’t what convinced Deepika Padukone, Tiger Shroff, and Salman Khan to accept thankless roles and cameos in Singham Again. The real enigma is why it took six writers (Yunus Sajawal, Abhijeet Khuman, Kshitij Patwardhan, Sandeep Saket, Anusha Nandakumar, and Rohit Shetty) to lift a plot from the Ramayana and do so little with it. Or perhaps the greater mystery is what happened to Rohit Shetty, who once had a knack for creating engaging mass-appeal moments but now seems reliant on hype, overt religious symbolism, and nostalgia to carry his recent movie. ‘Singham Again’ Review: Netizens Go Crazy Over Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey Cameo in Ajay Devgn’s Actioner – See Reactions.

When we first meet Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) in Singham Again, he’s stationed in Srinagar, leading a task force and capturing terrorist mastermind Omar Hafiz (Jackie Shroff) in a sequence that defies logic. Following the success of this mission, Singham is given command of a new force, the “Shiva Squad” (why this name, don’t ask), tasked with dismantling Omar’s operations across India. However, Singham remains unaware of a more dangerous adversary, Zubair (Arjun Kapoor), lying in wait.

Watch the Trailer of 'Singham Again':

The rest is a bombastic retelling of the Ramayana on Scorpio wheels. Zubair kidnaps Singham’s wife, Avni (Kareena Kapoor Khan), as revenge for the deaths of his family. He then challenges Singham to bring along his friends, particularly Simmba (Ranveer Singh) and Sooryavanshi (Akshay Kumar). Singham also has two other allies, Shakti (Deepika Padukone) and Satya (Tiger Shroff), whom neither Zubair nor the screenplay seems particularly interested in. What follows is entirely predictable. If you have seen the four-minute trailer, you have seen it all!

‘Singham Again’ Movie Review - Ramayana Redux and Overloaded

Look, I enjoy star-studded films, but they need at least an engaging screenplay or some semblance of one. The problem with Singham Again - and with Shetty’s recent work in general - is the assumption that audiences have “dumbed down” (is this because they missed the meta-jokes in Golmaal Returns?), requiring overt spoon-feeding. Borrowing the Ramayana as a plotline is perfectly fine, as films like Raavan and Hum Saath-Saath Hain have done in the past, but Singham Again overloads the narrative with Ram-Leela sequences (that Avni is conveniently staging) nearly every other scene, as if viewers cannot grasp the references on their own. If that weren’t enough, a loud background score filled with stotrams underscores every moment, with an overzealous voice-over narrating events before they even happen, like Sooryavanshi’s climactic entry. Then, there are portions of what I call “Ramayana tourism” that drag down the pacing further. As a sniggering fellow viewer remarked, “It’s like someone spliced Adipurush into Singham!” Ouch.

I understand who Shetty’s target audience is with the overtly saffronised tone he’s adopted here. If the symbols and imagery weren’t clear enough, lines like “Naya Bharat ka naya Kashmir” and “Naya Bharat ghus ke maarta hai” make the messaging loud and clear. But even for this audience, something more substantial than spoon-fed Ramayana references interspersed with nonsensical action scenes (where the actors are endlessly paraded in slo-mo) would be welcome.

‘Singham Again’ Movie Review - More Plotholes Than Bulletholes

When it isn’t attempting to ape the epic, Singham Again makes little sense otherwise. Why would Omar, an ageing terrorist mastermind, suddenly decide to ambush Singham on a motorbike, no less, apparently just to get conveniently caught? Every main character is, frankly, bad at their job. Shakti fails to answer a crucial call from her subordinate in danger. Satya, meanwhile, is unable to prevent Avni’s kidnapping because he’s too busy walking through flames in slo-mo. Singham knows his wife could be in danger, yet he assigns the most inept cops (and Daya) to protect her.

Zubair is painted as a dangerous and brilliant criminal, but while his violent streak is on full display (like his introductory scene at Shakti’s police station), his intelligence is never on display. He repeatedly allows the heroes to escape with ease - like Simmba pulling off a Lankadahan-style escape from Zubair’s hideout. Herein lies another mystery: while the film attempts to replicate Hanuman’s visit to Sita, Zubair inviting Simmba to check on Avni’s safety in person makes no sense whatsoever when a video call could have easily sufficed. ‘Singham Again’ Original Title Track Removed from YouTube After Copyright Strike From ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ Makers T-Series – Here’s What Happened!

Zubair’s motivations remain perplexing. He constantly challenges Singham to bring both Simmba and Sooryavanshi, yet when they finally arrive, he’s nowhere to be found. So, what exactly had he been plotting for the past two years? Did Satya and Shakti's presence throw him off his “syllabus”?

Even visually, Singham Again is pretty inconsistent. There are some scenes where the lighting and cinematography feel flat, but then, during the Ram-Leela sequences, the colours feel over-saturated. The contrast in these scenes gets vexing after a point.

‘Singham Again’ Movie Review - The Performances

If I have to be somewhat gracious to the movie, Singham Again isn’t a total lost cause. Zubair’s introductory scene and the attack on Satya’s house inject some much-needed momentum. Simmba’s entry briefly revives the film, with Ranveer Singh providing chuckles at first, though his antics grow tiresome. Akshay Kumar’s cameo is a welcome relief, though I wish he’d been given more to do than jump around clearly CGI-laden green screens. In his prime, he once rode atop a helicopter - surely, he deserves more than the inconsequential stunts he’s stuck with these days.

As for the rest of the cast, Ajay Devgn could play Bajirao Singham in his sleep by now, though I miss the grounded quality of his earlier performances (and action scenes that weren’t so mundane). Kareena Kapoor Khan is reduced to a stereotypical damsel in distress and a 'WhatsApp aunty' obsessed with sanskaar and parampara. Why Deepika Padukone agreed to her role remains a mystery; her "Lady Singham" act is awkward, and she has little to do until the climax. The same goes for Tiger Shroff.

Surprisingly, the standout performer here is Arjun Kapoor. He embodies the violent villain well, with suitably menacing expressions and physique, though his character’s motivations remain baffling. As for Salman Khan’s much-hyped cameo, it lasts only a few seconds, and - like his ludicrous fake beard - it feels like one of the most forced cameos in recent memory.

‘Singham Again’ Movie Review -  Final Thoughts

Singham Again, easily the frailest movie in the Rohit Shetty cop universe, feels less like a coherent film and more like a patchwork of forced fan service, lazy mythological allusions, and nostalgia designed to evoke misplaced sentiments rather than genuine engagement. Save for Ajay, Kareena and Arjun, the rest of the stars are either cameos or extended cameos, some not even essential to the plot (like Deepika and Tiger). For all its thunderous chants and bloated action, Singham Again sadly lacks the soul and the zing that once made Singham's roar feel so ferocious a few years back.

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 01, 2024 06:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).