‘Singham Again’ review: Third instalment in cop franchise is fractured and overdone

THE Bollywood cop universe, comprising films about crusading law-enforcement officers, was kickstarted by 2011 film Singham.

The newly released third instalment of that potboiler brings together those various police officers and adds new ones to the mix. When a dreaded terrorist is arrested by Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn), a psychotic member of his team plots revenge by going on a murderous rampage and kidnapping the fearless cop’s wife (Kareena Kapoor Khan). Singham embarks on a rescue mission with the help of an all-action dream team that includes DCP Shakti Shetty (Deepika Padukone), Satya (Tiger Shroff), Simmba (Ranveer Singh) and Sooryavanshi (Akshay Kumar).

Apart from overblown action and eye-catching star casts, the one constant of filmmaker Rohit Shetty’s movies has been poor writing that is so overcooked the story is burned to a cinder. This mega-budget movie is no different, as he unsuccessfully tries to connect the Ramayana to a modern-day action movie with parallels in the characters and storyline. That seemingly cynical ploy to cash in on the right-wing religious fervour in India results in a fractured film which is not as clever as perhaps the filmmaker or writing team think.

What remains is a series of overdone scenes that have been poorly stitched together. There is also headache-inducing background music and overacting on an epic scale from the huge star cast. Those who like escapist masala entertainers or are fans of the various cast members will overlook the many flaws and go along for the ride. There are some nice locations, a few eye-catching stunts, and a little comic relief. But that isn’t enough to save this bloated film from sinking and being a huge wasted opportunity. It comes across like a self-indulgent movie where stars get to play dressup as cops and do action scenes, without really thinking about the audience.