Singham: Again is the fifth film in Rohit Shetty’s Cop Universe and it takes the franchise to the insanest of highs while reaching an unforeseen low. Read our Singham: Again review below.
The Cop Universe had its beginnings in 2011 with Singham. The film followed an honest and noble police officer named Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) who tackles corruption in a small town. Over several years, the franchise has morphed into something completely different and gotten progressively bigger in scale with the last film, Sooryavanshi, forgoing the small-town police story for international geopolitics. Singham: Again has similarly taken the franchise to another level, becoming a fantastical and mythologic epic where the titular Singham ascends to godhood (not literally but kind of literally?).
Singham: Again is the first film since 2014’s Singham Returns to primarily focus on the titular character. It reveals that Singham, now a family man with a wife and son, has become a symbol in the country as a force for good. The film opens as Singham captures Omar Hafeez (Jackie Shroff), the mastermind behind the terrorist plot in Sooryavanshi. Hafeez reveals that although he may have been captured, a storm is coming for Bajirao Singham. Two years later, Singham leads an elite team, Shiva Squad, that works to destroy Hafeez’s syndicate. When Singham’s wife Avni (Kareena Kapoor) is kidnapped by the mysterious Danger Lanka (Arjun Kapoor), Singham teams up with familiar faces and some new ones to bring her back and kill or capture Danger Lanka.
Dissimilar to previous films in the Cop Universe, Singham: Again is not played straight as an action blockbuster and adds another element of the most heavy-handed Ramayana metaphor I’ve ever seen. The film lets you know early on that it wants to connect itself to the story of the Ramayana which in and of itself, is fine; there are countless Bollywood films which reference and adapt the myth in various ways. But Singham: Again likes to remind you of what it’s doing over and over again. Pivotal moments and action sequences are constantly interrupted to remind the audience which part of the Ramayana the scene is mirroring and it kills the momentum. It’s horrendously edited and borderline unwatchable. The film’s action sequences aren’t bad for what they are and would have been quite enjoyable if the constant cuts and callbacks weren’t integrated. It’s hard not to admire the decision to take this franchise to literal godhood and turn an action blockbuster to a mythological epic, but the end product is so lacking, it dampens just how outrageous and cool said decision is.
Barring the persistent interruptions in action sequences, although they are serviceable, most don’t hold up under scrutiny. Part of the draw of the original Singham was its small-town feel, and it resulted in most of its action being relatively minimalist. Fights were hand-to-hand and contained to small groups. Shetty and the franchise’s commitment to progressively get more over-the-top has resulted in larger-scale action sequences that these films may not be ready to handle. Car chases take place on completely empty roads, the majority of fights are effortless shootouts, and they result in minor splurts of CGI blood. The visuals and CGI are also extremely unpolished and do not do justice to the movie’s scope.
Singham: Again does not work very well narratively either. With an almost 3 hour runtime, the film is extremely inconsistent and not very well paced. There’s really only about 30-40 minutes in the second act where the film locks in and finds its groove. Prior to that, there’s a weak first act and after, an underwhelming final one. Plot threads are left hanging and the actual story is resolved quite abruptly, making the long runtime even harder to justify. Singham: Again does, however, deserve some props for doing away with the geopolitical jihad storyline that Sooryavanshi followed. It replaced it with a generic revenge story, which I didn’t love but much preferred to its predecessor. The film still has some of the most blatant jingoism I’ve ever seen and is genuine copaganda. There’s been a trend of these sort of blockbusters becoming increasingly more nationalist. The move away from a jihad story was a massive step and I hope more Bollywood action films follow suit.
Singham: Again’s biggest draw was the team-up element and the crossover was exactly what was marketed. After appearing in each other’s movies since Simmba (2018), Singham: Again was supposed to be the culmination in which the trio of Singham, Simmba (Ranveer Singh), and Sooryavanshi (Akshay Kumar) can finally properly team up and be joined by new members of the team: Shakti (Deepika Padukone) and Satya (Tiger Shroff). Most cast members simply have the screentime of an extended cameo, however. There’s no moment where they all get to shine together or play off each other. I can’t definitively say if all five were ever even on set together at the same time, which might explain the lack of dance number. It’s a sad excuse for a team-up film.
Rohit Shetty is undoubtedly one of the masters of the masala film and the Indian blockbuster but this might be his worst directorial outing. It’s quite unfortunate, because Shetty has been a director whose films I’ve enjoyed for almost 20 years now. Singham: Again is severely lacking in the Shetty charm apart from a couple standout scenes, and feels like a far cry from the early Singham films to even anything else in the Cop Universe. Can it even be called a masala film without a single song and dance number? Can it even be called a Singham film without a single “Aata majhi satakli”? This may seem ironic, but I’m only half joking when the point of these films is fan service. You can have all the pauses for whistles and applause, but what exactly is there to rave about? As a fan of this franchise, it’s certainly not the conclusion of a 13 year saga that I would’ve asked for. There are enjoyable moments, sure, but the film feels like a shell of where the franchise began, even if it is so much bigger in scope than could be imagined.
Singham: Again is directed Rohit Shetty and stars Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff and Jackie Shroff. Singham: Again is now playing in theatres in India with a limited release in the United States.
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