Simbaa Movie Review # Ranveer Singh # Sara Ali Khan # Bhalerao # Tell Me Something I Don't Know

If Singham represents a big lion, what would you call a little lion? Any guesses? Let us help you. Do you remember the animated movie “The Lion King?” What was the young lion in the movie called? You are right…Rohit Shetty also used the same logic (we assume so) when he named his latest cop film as Simmba. This does not mean that Simmba (Ranveer Singh) is shown to be the son of Singham (Ajay Devgn). It just means that in the cop universe of Rohit Shetty, Simmba follows Singham.

Inspector Sangram Bhalerao (Simmba) is shown to be a morally-bankrupt police officer who joins the police force only for the sake of earning money. He is shrewd enough to extract money both from the offenders and the offended. Simmba’s dialect has a huge Marathi accent which he seems to have carried forth from his second-last outing as Peshwa Bajirao from the movie Bajirao Mastani. Nevertheless, his every dialogue has some or the other punches (which Rohit Shetty seems to have borrowed from Krishna-Sudesh and Kapil Sharma when he was a judge at their comedy show). Everything seems to fall in place for Simmba.

Let us put you in the shoes of Simmba. Imagine the following scenario:

· You are a corrupt police officer and you get shifted to a police station wherein you have heavy chances of earning money under the table.

· The pretty girl Shagun (Sara Ali Khan) who is going to be your future girlfriend has her catering centre just adjacent to your police station. Shagun realizes that you love her and so she proposes to you before you can propose her.

· You have cordial relations with the local don Durva Ranade (Sonu Sood) and his family members. Durva pays you handsomely to ensure that you overlook all his illegal activities in the town.

· An honest policeman Nityanand Mohile (Ashutosh Rane) always taunts you about your corrupt practices but still sits on the terrace to drink alcohol with you.

· Every second girl in the film (apart from the heroine in the film) is your younger sister, bhabhi, or mother.

· You have a comic police aide (Siddarth Jadhav) whose only job is to keep giving exaggerated expressions and responses to everything you say.

· You have a horde of small- time TV actors and actresses around you who are free of all vices and are good Samaritans.

· Your police station has several officers; however, none of them are ever shown busy working on any case.

So, what more do you want from life when everything is going so smoothly? As you ponder over this question, you realize that you are almost touching the interval of the film. The makers of the movie then add the element of a burning issue of our times: Rape. Simmba’s so-called sister is brutally raped and killed by the younger brothers of Durva Ranade. The interval coincides with a change in Simmba’s conscience. Post interval the movie turns into a vengeance drama. It is exactly at this stage when the film starts faltering badly. Somehow the director feels an urgency to give dialogue to every single person present in the film. Simmba and every officer in his team are then shown to work only on one single case.

Melodrama associated with the revenge flicks of the 80s is poured all over the film in the second half. The narrative becomes extremely preachy towards the end. The director can be accused of taking enough cinematic liberties when:

· He shows that the goons turn up openly in the police station and try to take away a cell phone which supposedly has evidence against the rapists.

· He shows that Simmba goes to the house of a local politician and beats him with a shoe in front of all his bodyguards and asks the wife of the politician to shoot the episode.

· He shows that Simmba executes a staged encounter in his police station after taking an opinion from all the ladies in the film.

What happens in the end? Does the victim of the rape find justice? Are the offenders punished by the law or they escape the punishment? What happens to Durva Ranade? What message does the movie want to convey? Is it successful in conveying that message? All these questions will be answered only when you watch the movie.

The cameo by Singham is shown in the trailer; however, you will be surprised to see the introduction of another superstar as ATS chief Veer Sooryavanshi at the end. We will not reveal who the superstar is but you will be thrilled to see him in the end for sure. The music tracks “Aankh Mare” and “Tere Bin” stood out among all the other songs. For a change, we did not see cars flying in the air in this edition of the Rohit Shetty movie. A lot of scenes and dialogues in the movie seemed repetitive.

The Telugu movie Temper (which inspired the movie Simmba) was way ahead in all departments, be it the direction, dialogues, acting, and execution of the story. All in all Rohit Shetty had a recipe for a blockbuster. However, he tampered a lot with the recipe and tried to flavor it with his own spices. Consequently, the cooked dish lacked the finesse which the original dish possessed. Too much experimentation may have stolen the essence of the movie. Nevertheless, the movie is a one-time watch for sure. It has few whistle-worthy moments and if you are a fan of slapstick comedy, you will have an amusing time in the movie theatre.

The movie ending depicts that we may have a sequel to Simmba!!

Our rating for the movie: 2.5/5.0