'Singh Is Kinng' -Chak Diye Phatte

Starring : Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Sonu Sood, Om Puri, Neha Dhupia, Javed Jaffrey
Director : Anees Bazmee

Singh Is Kinng begins in Australia but the movie actually takes off a few reels later in a Punjab village when the protagonist Happy Singh is introduced. Akshay stands like a scarecrow, clenching the corners of his kurta sleeves and flashing that million-dollar gummy grin that makes the whole cinema hall reverberate with wolf whistles from the audiences. That’s the moment you know the king is in the house and that everything from hereon would be Happy.

So it turns out for the first half of this crazy comedy by Anees Bazmee , the man who directed Welcome and No Entry . Bazmee’s over-the-top comedies are known to have a blatant disregard for sense, style and subtlety. ‘Singh Is Kinng’ is no different. With its many contrived twists and turns – and not to forget its outlandish characters – the movie doesn’t ask you to use your brain, nor does it proclaim to have one itself. It is a film that doesn’t take itself seriously and it tries every recipe in the book of entertainment to give you laughs worth your money spent. The movie works in the first half, flounders a bit in the second, but makes up for the glitches by the end with a big fat ostentatious Punjabi wedding gone wrongly right Down Under.

Along with his friend Rangeela ( Om Puri ), a confident Happy embarks on his mission, ends up boarding a wrong flight and lands up in Egypt where he falls head-over-heels in love with Sonia ( Katrina Kaif ). It’s a love that remains unreciprocated.

Anyway, Happy proceeds to his mission in OZ, walks into the mansion of don Lucky Singh only to be thrown out on the streets until a motherly rose-shop owner ( Kiron Kher ) gives him food and shelter. An undaunted Happy refuses to abort his mission. But before he could reform Lucky, an unexpected twist of events lands the underworld king into a wheelchair and Happy Singh on the throne of the king.

Thereafter, the new king turns the whole functioning of the underworld upside down. Charity and compassion replace coercion and kidnapping. And the don’s henchmen end up getting new duties – like cutting vegetables in kitchen (instead of chopping heads) or watering flowers in the garden (instead of drowning their foes).

The first half of ‘Singh Is Kinng’ goes by breezily. However, the second half becomes a drag when Sonia (Katrina Kaif) re-enters Happy’s life with her boyfriend Puneet ( Ranvir Shorey ). Happy and his henchmen maintain a false façade and try to get the lovers married. But then, Sonia falls in love with Happy.

The comedy in the second hour becomes a tad too deliberate as Bazmee adopts a no-holds-barred approach and pulls every possible string and tries every available trick to make the film funny. The songs by Pritam are definitely funky and worth a Bhangra, but ‘Talli Hua’ could easily be axed from the flick.

‘Singh Is Kinng’ works primarily because of Akshay Kumar, the charming and charismatic superstar who bowls you over with his comic flair and his magnetic screen presence. It is hard to imagine any other actor playing the bumbling village bumpkin with such aplomb. Akshay’s Happy Singh is a proud Sikh with a funny bone for self-deprecatory humour.

Needless to say, Katrina looks in her elements opposite him, playing a law student who hates nothing more than criminals but eventually ends up falling for a good-natured don.

Om Puri gets a few punchy lines but his comic prowess hasn’t been tapped optimally. Sonu Sood is confined to a wheelchair for the most part of his role while Ranvir Shorey is effectively repulsive as the cocky boyfriend of Katrina. Javed Jaffrey is over-the-top. Kiron Kher isn’t her usual charming self.

‘Singh Is Kinng’ released on August 8th, 2008

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