“Mote wale istaraf, patle wale ustaraf aur fit wale mere peeche,” commands the police officer Robinhood Pandey urf Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) to his police team while chasing the goons. Chulbul’s team pursues his instruction too seriously and so no one is left behind him. ‘Dabaang’ is set in the Laalgunj village of Uttar Pradesh and is suggestive of the outlawed and nefarious system rampant in those places.
Chulbul Pandey is unprincipled, hot-headed and accepts bribe; he has a heart of bulbul that thumps loudly against injustice; he has his own way of dealing with corruption; his treatment is unlawful yet just. Chulbul’s life revolves around his mother Naina (Dimple Kapadia) whom he loves very much and much against his will around his step-father Prajapati Pandey (Vinod Khanna) and his half-brother Makhhi urf Makhhanchand Pandey (Arbaaz Khan) until he falls in love with Rajo (Sonakshi Sinha). As the story travels through a fast-paced lane splitting entertainment here and there, the local goon Cheddi Singh (Sonu Sood) who is also a small-time politician succeeds in creating a rift between Chulbul and Makhhi to his own advantage. The remaining movie is about how Bollywood would eventually unite the two brothers and lead to a happy ending.
The story of ‘Dabaang’ is plain but the screenplay is electrifyingly tight and the director Abhinav Singh Kashyap loaded the moving script with tonnes of entertainment. The audience would hardly find time to ponder on anything else but the movie. This is one of the very few Bollywood movies that could be described as a complete entertainer, absolutely in tune with what one could foresee from the promos of the movie. The dialogues were refreshingly jocular and the cowboy-flavoured background score took the quotient a few notches higher even though you might have this feeling of being familiar with the background score. Hush hush! I would rather rate Mahesh Limaye’s cinematography as average. The commonalities of a village weren’t acutely felt.
Sajid-Wajid’s music is breezy. The song “Tere mast mast do nain” is making the teenagers blush and bite nails in anticipation. But Lalit Pandit’s “Munni badnaam huyi darling tere liye” would surely drive you peppy and dancing. The song would feature in my list of top-rated item numbers along with the prestigious “Bidi jalaiyle” and “Kajrare kajrare” of the recent generation. Just focus on the words of Jalees Sherwani for a second – “Main Zandu balm huyi” - so Indian! Full marks to the singers Mamta Sharma and Aishwarya Nigam.
Of course we could never stop without speaking of the ‘breathtaking’ stunts by S. Vijayan. Styled well, the action sequences would undoubtedly be the high point of the movie for 95% of the Indians. For the remaining 5% Matrix-bred ones, well, don’t apply your intellect here. Even when Chulbul Pandey’s shirt isn’t able to sustain the pressure of his angry muscles!
Frankly, the character who completely didn’t fit the bill would be Dimple Kapadia. Not convincing enough as a UP-ite. Salman Khan as Chulbul Pandey delivered impeccably the way Salman Khan would. Arbaaz Khan was boringly plastic. Vinod Khanna didn’t throw any surprise either. Sonu Sood as the brawny villain stood tall, not because he is physically tall. Mahesh Manjrekar cameo as Naina’s drunkard father Haria was just brilliant. So was Om Puri in his brief appearance. Nothing similar i could say about Mahie Gill, Anupam Kher and Tinu Anand but they didn’t have much scope to act. Newcomer Sonakshi Sinha lacked the oomph and charisma of a promising star.
The whistles from last night’s show are still ringing in my ears. I could hear the name of Rajnikant in between but that disappeared in the intensity of the thunderous claps. If cinematic experience is not the agenda and you consider yourself being a part of the crowd, ‘Dabaang’ would be the right weekend experience for you.
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