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Singham Again: A Modern-Day, Cop-Addled Reimagination Of The Ramayana

This is #CriticalMargin where Ishita Sengupta gets contemplative over new Hindi films and shows. Here: Singham Again.

Ishita+Sengupta

Nov 01, 2024

Promotional still. Singham Again

OF ALL THE IMPROBABLE THINGS in Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again like a car flying over a helicopter, like the same car landing without a scratch, like gifted actors dialling down their craft to match the trite script, like six people writing that script, like Ajay Devgn mistaking walking for acting, like the film mistaking walking for acting, the one that sticks out the most is Shetty assembling half the Hindi film industry (an exaggeration but you get the drift) to combat Arjun Kapoor.

It is a bewildering proposition on multiple grounds, the most obvious one being Kapoor’s inability to act. In a decade-long career, the actor has made his mark in sand, which is to say not much. His turns have been largely ineffective, wholly forgettable and tremendously non-committal. On a good day I would have termed it as art but today, when the memory of his film is still fresh in my post-Diwali mind, I want to call it a miracle.

It is honestly astounding the lack of growth Kapoor has displayed in film after film, despite ample opportunity to demonstrate otherwise. His ability to act is so stunted that Singham Again tries the hardest when propping him up. Before he appears, characters take turns to elevate him (“he is death”, “he is darkness”) only for his presence to puncture it all. I found it most bizarre that five minutes after one of his henchmen eerily describes him as invisible and thus invincible (“no one can see him”), he makes an appearance. If Singham Again tries hard to make him sinister, then Kapoor tries harder to not be anything.

The actor’s incompetence dilutes the urgency in a film whose every premise is rooted in it. Coming on the back of several cop films, Singham Again is Shetty’s full throttle exhibition of his cop universe. The outing marks the return of Devgn as Bajirao Singham, Akshay Kumar as Veer Sooryavanshi and Ranveer Singh as Sangram Bhalerao (they reprise their roles), and new cops like Deepika Padukone as Shakti Shetty and Tiger Shroff as Satya Bali — standing in line to headline their own films — make an appearance. The face-off between the good and the bad is so stilted and the stakes are so consistently low that at no point does the film earn the coming together of six actors, each exciting as action leads.

I want to assume that Shetty realised it, for nothing else explains the embellishments he adds to the script as overcompensation. It is a little outlandish and committedly flippant but here goes. In his newest imagining of Singham’s adventures, the filmmaker designs him after the mythological character, Ram. He doesn’t stop there of course. Singham’s wife, Avni (Kareena Kapoor reduced to reaction shots) is Sita. And the rest of the cops are the other characters from Valmiki’s mythology. The one-line summary of Singham Again would be: a modern-day, cop-addled reimagination of Ramayana with chariots replaced by cars.

Propaganda aside or maybe not (there are buoyant celebrations of “new India” that is aggressive and “new Kashmir” that doesn’t side with terrorists…. the implication is evident for all to see) Shetty’s latest outing is knee-crackingly tedious. The filmmaker is somehow certain that his allusions will be lost on us so every suggestion to the Ramayana is accompanied by recreations. How, you ask? Well, the film opens with Avni, an employee in the Culture Ministry, hosting Ramlila to prove that Ramayana is indeed based on facts. In fact, Singham Again pushes for it so hard and goes to such History channel level that if Valmiki was alive, he would be embarrassed.

But Shetty’s film has no shame. Therefore when Shroff’s Satya Bali touches Singham’s feet, we see images of Lakshman doing the same to Ram. When Ravana abducts Sita, we see Kapoor’s Zubair Hafiz (the grandson of Omar Hafeez, essayed by Jackie Shroff, the antagonist in Sooryavanshi) kidnapping Avni. The repetition of the recreation is so much that if Shetty’s intent was to evoke an interest in the Ramayana I am sad to report the opposite has happened.

This pattern is promptly followed by another pattern where every chaos is solved by bringing in a new cop. Two years back, this design would have caused excitement. But in the post-Pathaan and post-Stree world, where every film is looking to expand into a universe or is part of one, it has become vapid. And none of the two new characters, especially Shakti Shetty, shows much promise. The only one who does is Ranveer Singh. As Simmba, the actor continues his role of an honest but flustered police officer with utter conviction, like there was no break. His timing is perfect and his body language is faultless. Conceptualised as a bridge between the brawny Singham and Sooryavanshi, Simmba stands well on his two feet and deserves several franchises.

Watching a Hindi film cop drama today can be an exercise in suspicion. There is always jingoism lurking in the wings. In Singham Again it takes centre-stage but it is accompanied by such dullness that the bigotry becomes the lesser evil. In many ways, Singham Again reminded me of Kannan Iyer’s Ae Watan Mere Watan (2024), an equally laborious film that reduced its liberal politics to a footnote.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of OTTplay. The author is solely responsible for any claims arising out of the content of this column.