Singham [2011]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

It's been a long time since I made a post. it's not that we haven't been doing Bad Movie Night the last two weeks but the two movies we watched I have nothing more to say about: "Saving Christmas" and "Birdemic." Two classics I have talked about enough. However, this week we are back to watching things we've never seen before and we came back with a bang. Literally. I wouldn't even call this movie bad. It's like "Inhuman Resources" which we all loved so much: it's a movie that knows what it wants to be and is well aware of its ridiculousness and doesn't care. This movie knows no boundaries. On a scale of one to ten it is pretty much always operating at an eleven and never drops below a nine. After this, it's pretty much a gurantee that there will be more Bollywood movies at bad movie night because it was so damn fun. None of us had even seen a Bollywood action movie before (Indian movies in general, yes, but not like this) and Adam described it well with, "This is like old school Hollywood. You're here for a show and godamnit we're going to entertain you."

In a rapid prologue of Dutch angles and flashbacks we get the story of a Goa city cop named Rakesh Kadem who killed himself after being framed by the city's top gangster, Jaikart Shikre, who has the whole police force bending to his whim. Kadem's widow knows he only killed himself because of the pressure but on him by Shikre and wants to clear his name of corruption charges.

Suddenly, the story changes entirely as a man emerges from a giant pool as if summed by the gods and we are treated to the first of three musical numbers. With lyrics saying, "The heart races. The body trembles when you know he's coming. Singham!" you know what's up. Singham is a cop, the perfect cop actually (Indian Chuck Norris, really), in a small town outside of Goa. Everyone loves him. He literally sends men flying up into the air by tapping them on the head. Cars flip over in his presence. He's basically the Jesus of fist fighting who ends his battles by whipping his opponents with his belt. Among this mad display of manliness we are treated to a silly comedic side story about how his friend's daughter falls in love with him and pretty much demands marriage. We get another musical interlude. He says he loves her so I guess they're engaged. 

Everything is swell until Shikre is given conditional bail and must travel to Singham's village every day to sign in. Initially he sends some goons but Singham is not having it and embarrasses Shikre into complying. Shikre gets revenge by having Singham transfered to Goa where he can make his life hell with the goal of driving him to suicide as well. Singham is frustrated with the state of Goa and how none of the other cops will help him try to take down Shikre because they're all afraid of him. Singham almost gives up and goes home. There's another song break between Singham and his girlfriend.

He is inspired then to try to turn everything around after meeting Kadem's widow and remembering the true meaning of taking down the bad guy. He arrests Shikre's top lieutenant by framing him but Shikre gets revenge by kidnapping Singham's girlfriend's sister. Then Singham decides to beat up more bad guys in public and give rousing speeches to the police officiers about their duties. They agree to band together to take down Shikre. Which they do. By killing him. And making it look like a suicide. No chill. And Kadem gets cleared of all charges and his widow is personally apologized to by her husband's coworkers. 

Explaining the plot of this movie does little to get to the meat of why this movie is such an experience. It's so hard to describe the most over the top fight scenes you will ever witness juxtaposed with essentially pop music videos (which you can watch on YouTube by the way). And the sound effects! Sound effects dissimilar from any you have heard in the known world! Oh, and every time Singham is being really badass, his theme plays. Or at least the part that says his name. And we will be singing it for all eternity.

SINGHAM!

BMN Quotes:
Adam: "This is the film equivalent of an eight minute Metallica solo."
Kay: "This is the film equivalent of pounding Red Bull."
Adam: "This is the Dragonforce of cinema."

Spoon Rating: 9