Not Dabangg Enough

The Robin Hood Pandey returns with a new positioning as Kung-fu Pandey; and somewhere in that transition, the essence of Chulbul Pandey is smothered. Arbaaz Khan’s sequel to Abhinav Kashyap’s much-appreciated Dabangg is nothing but an ill-constructed amalgamation of the protagonist in Ready and the villain from Singham. By all means, the film is an outright entertainer; however, built on a carcass of the first film, Dabangg 2 fails to recreate the magic of its predecessor. The main defect in the sequel, without a doubt, is the direction. A lack of vision in terms of a standalone project, it relies heavily on the laurels of the first film and hence, falls on its face to some extent. A character driven story, Dabangg 2 has very little to offer apart from the charismatic cop Chulbul Pandey portrayed with excellence by the people’s favourite superstar, Salman Khan.

Following a similar narrative pattern, Dabangg 2 could easily have been an experience of revisiting Dabangg; like in the case of the Hangover franchise, which didn’t meddle with the plot in its sequel. However, in tampering with the narrative structure, the writers have added some ridiculous bits that are too stereotypical and ridiculous even by the standards of a regular mainstream entertainer. The bad guy harming the family of the good guy who then flares up to take revenge is something we unfortunately grew up on and don’t wish to see anymore.With action sequences that are literally going South (if you know what I mean) with every single film, and the line between the ridiculous and the real growing thinner and thinner, Dabangg was a franchise from which one expected some craftsmanship; but that seems to have left it along with Abhinav Kashyap.

Apart from Salman Khan, whose belt buckle sways automatically this time around, no other character leaves a lasting mark in one’s memory. Prakash Raj delivers yet another Jaikant Shinkre-sque performance and quite frankly, a great actor is being bound in the shackles of being typecast as the big eyed baddy with every single role. Deepak Dobriyal, who plays the bad guy’s brother, is under-utilised. A fine actor whose talent has been quite adequately realised only by a few makers, Deepak’s character, like most others, is simply used as a marker to establish the might of Chulbul Pandey. Sonakshi Sinha plays Chulbul’s wife Rajjo, a role that demands an able bodied woman to just exist, while Salman romances with it.

As everybody had correctly expected, Dabangg 2 is ‘Of the Salman, By the Salman, For the Salman’. With Wanted, he created a realm about himself that has been accepted and appreciated by everyone. It has grown with Dabangg, Bodyguard, Ready and most recently, Ek Tha Tiger. What these films have done is that they have made the viewer tolerant to a kind of absurdity, so much so that his actions are now acceptable. There is realism, there is magic realism, there is surrealism and now, it is safe to say, Salman has created a realm of his own, a Salmanic Realism, if you may.

He drives the wagon of the film and the franchise single-handedly and with his typical dance moves, giggles and punchlines; Salman keeps you entertained throughout and is a job well done. And while you put up a Salman poster in your room and stick it 'Fevicol se', the director needs to apply some 'Zandu Balm' for denting what could have been a good franchise.

Rating - 2.5 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on December 22, 2012