I shouldn’t be writing about Singham Again. It doesn’t deserve anyone’s time at all. Still, I do so only as a form of catharsis—to purge myself of having ever seen a movie such as this one, to vent my anguish in words for having given away two and a half hours of my life to this mind-numbing film. I could have stopped watching the movie anytime (thank God I was streaming it on Amazon). The only reason I kept going was to see how far stupidity can go. The film has no story, no entertainment, no decent performances, and not even a decent portrayal of the police force.
Oh, did I say story? Well, this movie is supposed to be modeled on the Ramayana with Mr. Ajay Devgn as Singham, Kareena Kapoor as Sita, and Arjun Kapoor as a laughable Ravan. Ranveer Singh takes on the part of Hanuman. For some strange reason, his mannerisms (oops, are we expected to call that acting? I am sorry) resemble the antics of our biological ancestors more than capturing the symbolism of Hanuman. And who was that chap with all muscles and no acting brawn? Oh, Tiger Shroff, son of Jackie Shroff ( who continues his role from the previous installment). Tiger should stop acting. Somebody should tell him to pursue modeling, where I think, given the time he has spent developing his physique, he may do well. But please, we must keep him away from the cinematic frame. Did I see Deepika Padukone also? Yes, I did, somewhere in the beginning and toward the end. To top it all, Akshay Kumar makes a “cameo” appearance, which by definition should have meant there is a modicum of meaning to the role. Alas, in this case, Akshay flies into the frame on his customary helicopter to complete the story of what, by modern standards of Hindi commercial films, must be the nadir of filmmaking ever. What shocked me even more was this film—this joke of a movie—has made nearly 500 crores at the box office, making it one of the top ten films in commercial cinema of 2024. When I read this, the tragedy was complete.
Let me state something unequivocally to all Indian filmmakers: I don’t have to be taught my Ramayana over and over again. It is my humble request to them to move on from Ram, Sita, and the Ramayana a little and focus on other things. It seems to me that movie producers are keen to showcase the Ramayana to ingratiate themselves with the governing establishment and show them that they are toeing the line. What they fail to understand is that using the epic indiscriminately only compromises the beauty and depth of our incredible epic. The Ramayana is becoming a joke when we see it juxtaposed in films like this. Only last year did we endure a version of the Ramayana full of special effects, and now Singham Returns brings back the same theme. I read somewhere that a few more films based on the Ramayana are being made. No more of this for me.
Right from the word go, Singham Returns advertises itself as a film with no substance. Even though the movie is packed with decent actors, their acting performances are desultory without any commitment whatsoever. Poor Arjun Kapoor, after a violent introductory scene with so much blood that would make Quentin Tarantino look childish, fizzles away, and towards the end, you feel sorry for him. Kareena Kapoor has looked jaded lately in all her roles, but in this one, she is laughably puerile. It is almost as if nobody told her what she was supposed to do. Ajay Devgn reprises his role as Singham. Unable to generate enough gravitas on the merit of the character, an irritatingly large number of slow-motion sequences let us know that Singham means business. In between all this madness, we are given history lessons on places of Ram worship, not just in India but in Sri Lanka, too. Rohit Shetty’s film sensibilities are whacky at the best of times, but with this one, he has lost it. His vision of a cop universe is quickly turning into caricatures of the Indian police force—which I am sure is not his intention, but that is what his films are turning out to be. He should watch out.
As I said, there is nothing to write about this film. I wish I had something positive to say. Unfortunately, there is nothing. Well, my voice means nothing at all. After all, the discerning public has poured 500 crores into Rohit Shetty’s coffers for this effort. And if that is the only yardstick of success for a film, then I will let the matter rest. Good movies will only come by when the public is careful about what they see and acknowledge. Payal Kapadia’s brilliant film All We Imagine as Light, a story about two Malayali nurses in Mumbai, has seen significant success at the international box office, particularly in Europe, generating over $1 million in earnings. Still, its domestic box office performance in India is so poor that it is not even a fraction of Singham Again‘s. The actor Siddharth rightly remarked that India is not ready for good films at the commercial level. That is true. Very rarely do we find a movie that is truly well-made, non-commercial, and doing well at the box office in India. A majority of our audience still needs regular doses of heroic antics to make a movie sell.
Please watch Singham Again if you find yourself in any of these three situations: One, if you have absolutely nothing to do for three hours of your life, then watch it. Alternatively, if you think you need a refresher on your Ramayana. Lastly, if you want a cognitive workout to test your tolerance levels. Otherwise, please watch anything else your TV remote points to.