In Singham Again, Rohit Shetty turns into a boomer uncle. He sees the modern youth, laughs at them, and says, "I don't understand them." When IPS Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) and Home Minister Raj Jaishankar (Ravi Kishan) discuss terms like "ghosting" and "situationship" with each other, it feels as if Shetty is chuckling while nodding his head in disbelief at Gen Z - their slangs, their life, etc. Shetty, through his film, doesn't try to bridge the generation gap. Instead, he mocks the youngsters. He converts Bajrao's son, Shaurya (Viren Vazirani), into a stereotypical cliché of a young man with an urban accent who looks down on tradition. When Shaurya labels Ramayana as a myth, Shetty invites the uncles in the audience to jeer at this character. The director, obviously, doesn't realize that he is being as ignorant as Shaurya. The child is not familiar with Ramayana. Shetty, too, is clueless about the Indian epic. Like most (old) people, the filmmaker merely knows the basic stuff involving Ramayana: Ram married Sita. The couple, as well as Laxman, went to the forest for 14 years. One day, Raavan kidnapped Sita and took her to Lanka. At one point, Hanuman visited the Golden Palace to check on Sita and started a fire. Ram then assembled his army, came to Lanka, and killed Raavan. These surface-level details are all you get from people like Shetty who think they know Ramayana. Since they have no idea what Ram represents or what the story is trying to convey to them about human nature, these people take the stupid burden of providing evidence that the events of Ramayana actually happened.
If, after reading a great epic like Ramayana, all you can think about is searching for evidence to prove to someone that the story is real, then have you really read or understood Ramayana? Bajirao's wife, Avni (Kareena Kapoor Khan), organizes an event where she focuses on verifying the epic's events. If only she had spent all her time and resources grasping Ramayana's true nature and then used her knowledge to illuminate the audience, her son would not have dismissed the epic as something that's not cool or false. But this is asking too much from a director who is simply interested in blowing up vehicles. Why touch something as complex as Ramayana, then? Shetty is appealing to the old people of this country in more ways than one. Nevertheless, even on superficial levels, Shetty fails to convince us about the whole mythological touch. What aspect of Ram does he see in a lethargic Devgn? His Bajirao sleepwalks, which Shetty presents as a heroic, slo-mo walk. The slow motion merely extends the film's runtime, and it takes the place of almost five songs. What about Arjun Kapoor made Shetty say, "This will be my Raavan?" Avni describes Raavan as an extremely knowledgeable (gyaani) individual. What gyaan can one take from Arjun Kapoor or his performance? We watch Kapoor, and all we perceive is a man who, even with ten heads, would struggle to come up with more than two expressions.
Singham Again is as bad as its trailer. Shetty, now 50, and Devgn (55), look tired. The camera, like a sick patient, slowly moves and shows us Bajirao looking at a mountain, like someone who is planning his retirement to live in peace away from all the noise and explosion. When Devgn is required to deliver his lines with zeal, with anger, he looks like an amateur trying to impress the casting director at an audition. Shetty is well-known for his explosions and logic-defying stunts, but even these elements are not properly executed. The chase scene in Kashmir, at the beginning, doesn't give you an adrenaline rush because Shetty uses this moment for sightseeing by inserting wide shots displaying Kashmir's splendor. The hand-to-hand combat that follows is shot with a shaky, handheld camera that looks like the visual equivalent of dizziness. There is one moment, however, that appears promising enough. A car comes down from a dangling container, the container hits the other vehicles, and Akshay Kumar's Veer Sooryavanshi stylishly walks away from the explosion. But if these images don't fill you with excitement, that's because they feel loose, unsteady, not well-choreographed. Maybe Shetty also knows that he can no longer execute action with conviction, which is why he comes up with a scene where Simmba (Ranveer Singh) assures Bajirao that the so-called old people have recently caused so much "Gadar." This is Shetty patting himself on the back - it's self-motivation.
Ranveer Singh is a good reason to watch this new Singham - that is if you really don't have any other options. He doesn't do anything he has not done before, yet he shows how to rescue yourself from a bad project. Something about Deepika Padukone feels off when you first see her. The "funny faces" she makes while chasing three bad guys during her introduction fill you with embarrassment. Only when you meet Singh do you understand what's wrong with Padukone's performance: She mimics Singh's behavior. I would go as far as to say that Padukone's acting in Singham Again looks similar to that of Arjun Kapoor's. Both of them just make faces. People kept pestering Shetty with requests regarding a "female cop" production. He has granted their wishes by offering them a female cop who looks as disposable as a hero's love interest. Now, he can tell people to shut up and talk about something else.
Final Score- [1/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
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Publisher at Midgard Times