subject: Dabangg Review (2010) [print this page] So what you have here is a masala potboiler with customary ingredients of two stepbrothers, a doting mother, a romance track, an item number, five action sequences, a topless Salman scene and a happy end. To cover up the conventionalism of his script, director Abhinav Singh Kashyup makes the action director and editor work overtime. And to make Salman Khan's character look strong and supreme, every other character in the film is diluted or diminished.
So you have a dauntless corrupt cop Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) who fears nothing amongst family, friends or foes. Family comprises of stepbrother Makhi (Arbaaz Khan) and stepfather (Vinod Khanna) with whom he shares a love-hate relationship. Girlfriend happens to be village belle (Sonakshi Sinha) with whom he insists for a love-love relationship. Foe is the dubious goon (Sonu Sood) who will be ridiculed subsequently for his hole-some name Cheddi Singh and punched hollow in the climax.
Unarguably modeled on lines of Salman's last hit Wanted, Dabangg is as much slick on stylized action, dialogue dramebaazi, a commanding protagonist and Salman's signature dance steps. From his mortal combat entry sequence, to an introduction song, to the action-packed interval point (where he shields the heroine) to the climax tussle where he goes topless, Dabangg follows the same graph as Wanted in terms of its treatment. Unfortunately it fails to follow suit of Wanted in terms of its storytelling with a flat narrative.
One doesn't expect an intellectual or inventive story from a Salman Khan film but the writing by Abhinav Kashyup and Dilip Shukla is pretty predictable and dated. Other than some domestic drama, a lighthearted love story and some heavy-duty action (where the same scoundrel-sidekick is mauled thrice), there isn't much that happens in the first half. After his initial induction, the villain almost goes missing only to resurface in the middle of the second half. And while you expect a political conspiracy would initiate on his return, the film heads towards a routine climax.
Dabangg Review (2010)
By: Meraj Khan
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