It takes charisma and supreme, unaffected confidence in that charisma to pull off corniness. It's an attitude. Salman Khan has that in generous supply. Chulbul Pandey -- the deliciously massy, iconic supercop of Dabanng 2-- whips up dust storms as he lands feet. He kicks and punches hefty, scream-face thugs into orbit and does that little jig with his goggles. He looks the devil in the eye and gives sasta sarkari advice. Khan does all this with a half-grin; you can almost hear him think: "Boss, whistle now!" before another one-liner, another full-swing punch or another street ditty with Rajjo (Sonakshi Sinha). He doesn't perform. He doesn't have to, he just has to be there.
It's this assured, infectious presence that makes Dabanng 2 -- despite its huge predictabilities, plot holes and a very weak antagonist (Prakash Raj goes wide-eyed intense again, sigh.) -- an engaging watch. Kanpur is Pandey's new hunting ground and Bachcha Singh (Raj) and his brothers are the local lords who play it down because there's an election on (damn well you know That!). While earnestly treading masala ground (this is a film that has item hottie Kareena Kapoor singing she's tandoori chicken, asking men to have her with alcohol) that extends till the 1970s-style wind-down, with a new-born and a family photograph, director Arbaaz Khan also nods to the small-town India of home-spun riddles, pizza-lover cops and Young India underwear (the last one comes up during the terrific first face-off between Pandey and Bachcha).
Deepak Dobriyal as Bachcha's wild brother Genda has a good time. The action choreography is patented South ('Anal' Arasu, finally, changes his name to 'Anl' Arasu, dropping the a for obvious reasons). There are a few annoyingly tacky product placements and they could've done with a better theme score for Pandeyji. But subtleties are inconsequential distractions in a film that runs on Bhai's style and in-the-face coolth.
In Chennai, the Big Daddy of style -- after suffering many pretenders in his own backyard -- can take heart in the rise of a worthy successor. The man at the ticket counter had asked me, TheBang? On my way out, I had half a mind to tell him, "Oh yes!"
It's this assured, infectious presence that makes Dabanng 2 -- despite its huge predictabilities, plot holes and a very weak antagonist (Prakash Raj goes wide-eyed intense again, sigh.) -- an engaging watch. Kanpur is Pandey's new hunting ground and Bachcha Singh (Raj) and his brothers are the local lords who play it down because there's an election on (damn well you know That!). While earnestly treading masala ground (this is a film that has item hottie Kareena Kapoor singing she's tandoori chicken, asking men to have her with alcohol) that extends till the 1970s-style wind-down, with a new-born and a family photograph, director Arbaaz Khan also nods to the small-town India of home-spun riddles, pizza-lover cops and Young India underwear (the last one comes up during the terrific first face-off between Pandey and Bachcha).
Deepak Dobriyal as Bachcha's wild brother Genda has a good time. The action choreography is patented South ('Anal' Arasu, finally, changes his name to 'Anl' Arasu, dropping the a for obvious reasons). There are a few annoyingly tacky product placements and they could've done with a better theme score for Pandeyji. But subtleties are inconsequential distractions in a film that runs on Bhai's style and in-the-face coolth.
In Chennai, the Big Daddy of style -- after suffering many pretenders in his own backyard -- can take heart in the rise of a worthy successor. The man at the ticket counter had asked me, TheBang? On my way out, I had half a mind to tell him, "Oh yes!"
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