One messed up masala movie

As a kid when he is locked up for picking pockets, the orphan Sanghram Bhalerao aka Simmba sees the perks of being a cop. It’s not about maintaining law and order that attracts him to the job. He’s rather blown away at the potential of how much a cop can make underhand. Simmba eventually grows up to be a bent police officer who likes to scoop up fat ‘commissions’, acting as a middleman for both criminals and their victims. This corrupt cop played by Ranveer Singh is the protagonist in Rohit Shetty’s latest ‘Singham’ spin-off ‘Simmba’. Under Shetty’s pure masala aesthetics and ear-splitting back­ground score, we see cars float in mid-air and the hero lift off a dozen men in one take. When the film doesn’t take itself seriously, Singh’s natural energy makes us buy his anti-heroic qualities. It’s when the film shifts gear to give a sermon on a sensitive issue like ‘rape’ and slaps us with a populist stance that the film feels unbearably childish and narrow-minded.

 Who should watch it?

‘Simmba’ is designed as a crowd-pleasing masala film and packs in equal doses of action and comedy to fans of wholesome masala action films like ‘Singham’ and ‘Dabbang’. But it has a problematic social message that may upset many.

After we’re introduced to Simmba, the plot wastes no time to kick in. Simmba is transferred to a police station in Goa where a local kingpin Ranade (Sonu Sood) and his brothers dominate orga­nized crime. Simmba is quick to impress Ranade and enlists himself on Ranade’s pay-list, much to the dislike of Simmba’s junior officer, the honest head constable Mohile (Ashutosh Rana). In the meantime, Simmba also falls for Sagun (Sara Ali Khan), a girl running a catering business outside Simmba’s police station and whose deceased father used to be a daring cop.

In the film’s lighter moments early on, Ranveer Singh abandons all inhibitions and delivers an over-the-top Simmba, reminiscent of old-school Govinda and Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey from ‘Dab­bang’. He keeps things cool and funny with a flawed character like Simmba, although we can pretty well predict the transformative journey his character is going to take. But a rape sequence is then ill placed as Simmba’s coming-of-age moment. For once, Shetty and his screenwriters milk this moment for shock value and deliver patriarchal vigilante justice to a deep-rooted patriarchal problem. Women of this film remain in the periphery, while the men take things in their own hands to combat violence—with the help of violence.

Sara Ali Khan, who was impres­sive in her debut film ‘Kedarnath’, is used only for cosmetic purpos­es in this faux-feminist film. She makes random appearances during the film’s songs and turns into a wallflower among a parade of sup­porting characters.

‘Simmba’ doesn’t dig too much to make its flawed protagonist examine himself or to go through a personal crisis to come out with a changed heart. He rather changes suddenly without any personal growth or greater understanding of the world around him. And the plan of action he chooses is noth­ing short of the immature Simmba we meet at the film’s start.

Rohit Shetty is unmatched in orchestrating high-end action sequences but he still comes off raw in handling dramatic scenes with nuances. Shetty likes to make his point through heavy dialogue and takes a swing at challenging social problems with ultra-manliness and heroism. This has resulted in giving us ‘Simmba’ that breaks no new ground but solidifies stereotypical populist treatment of a sensitive issue that required more artistic and dramatic probing.

 

Movie: Simmba

Genre: Action

CAST: Ranveer Singh, Sara Ali Khan, Ashutosh Rana, Sonu Sood

DIRECTION: Rohit Shetty