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Movie review: ‘Singham’

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In the title role of the amusing Bollywood action-melodrama “Singham,” Ajay Devgan makes his entrance emerging slowly from a vast pool of water, showing off his buff physique — shades of Daniel Craig in “Casino Royale,” or better yet, Esther Williams in one of her Technicolor aquacades, since there is an elaborate festival surrounding him. Singham turns out to be the highly revered, ultra-macho, law-and-order chief police inspector of the picturesque village of Shivgad in the state of Goa.

Singham’s life is transformed when he comes to the rescue of Kavja (Kajal Aggarwal), a beautiful visitor from the city of Old Goa who was being pestered by a thug. First, he and Kavja are destined to fall in love; second, he has a run-in with Jaykant Shikre (Prakash Raj), a corrupt, all-powerful Goa politician who gets Singham transferred to Old Goa so he can have him under his thumb. But Singham, with his John Wayne stride and formidable martial arts skills, is not to be cowed.

It takes director Rohit Shetty and writer Yunus Sejawal a typical Bollywood 2 hours, 25 minutes that are largely diverting to get to a finish that is predictable and flawed by its vigilante-style tactics. Ironically, the first glimpse of Singham’s small police station in Shivgad recalls the legendary Roy Bean’s modest quarters in southwestern Texas, where that hanging judge proclaimed himself “the Law West of the Pecos.”

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Much of “Singham” is fun because Devgan, asked to utter such self-referential lines as “No matter how many dogs are in the pack, the lion is stronger,” is not taking himself too seriously and because Raj pulls out all the stops as a man-you-love-to-hate villain. “Singham” is as boldly overwrought as an early silent melodrama, and its comic relief is extremely broad. Indeed, its underlying sentiment — that country life, being close to nature, is pure while city life is foul — is a persistent theme in early cinema. Bollywood fans are more likely than not to be able to go with “Singham’s’” lengthy — but lively — ride.

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