Rating: 3.5 / 5
Director : Harish Shankar
Producer : Bandla Ganesh
Music Director : Devi Sri Prasad
Starring: Pawan Kalyan, Shruti Haasan, Malaika Arora
Story :
Venkatarathnam Naidu (Pawan Kalyan) is the son of Suhasini and the stepson of Naidu (Nagineedu). He loves Gabbar Singh’s character from Sholay and so he decides to call himself ‘Gabbar Singh’. He grows up into a daring and dashing but highly eccentric police officer. He is posted to his hometown of Kondaveedu and he decides to rid the population of law and order problems. This brings him into direct confrontation with Siddhappa Naidu (Abhimanyu Singh), the local goonda and a political aspirant.
As Gabbar Singh goes about confronting Siddhappa Naidu, he comes across Bhagyalakshmi ( Shruti Haasan ) and falls in love with her. Things get murky as the story proceeds and strong human emotions like jealousy, hatred and greed come to the fore. Will Gabbar Singh be able to stop Siddhappa Naidu’s atrocities? What price will he have to pay to achieve his goals? That forms the rest of the story.
The movie is an adaptation of Salman Khan’s ‘Dabangg’ and is not a straight remake. There are major changes in the story and in the treatment of characters.
Plus Points :
Pawan Kalyan is simply outstanding in the role of Gabbar Singh and he delivers beautifully on all counts. Pawan Fans will go into raptures of delight with his comedy, punch dialogues and mannerisms. He is excellent as always in the action sequences and he has performed some mass dances this time around.
Shruti Haasan looks beautiful and innocent as the simple village girl. She does not have too much screen presence but she has done justice to whatever was given to her. Ali enterains asconstable Samba and his scenes with Pawan are good. Brahmanandam rocks as Recovery Agent Ranjith Kumar. Suhasini and Nagineedu are decent in their respective roles.
Abhimanyu Singh is just about ok as Siddhappa Naidu. Rao Ramesh is good in a brief role. Happy Days fame Gayatri gets a radically different character in the film and she will score points with the front benchers.
The first half moves along at an incredible pace and it is highly entertaining with some solid dialogues. Some scenes like the one where Pawan makes an entry in a rickshaw with Megastar Chiranjeevi’s ‘Ee petaku nene mestri’ playing in the background will score major brownie points with fans. Comedy quotient is high throughout most of the film. The antyakshari block in the police station is hilarious. The romatic track between Pawan and Shruti is very entertaining and it has been conceived very well by Harish Shankar.
All the songs have been shot very well and ‘Dil Se’, ‘Pilla’ and ‘Gabbar Singh’ songs will stand out for beautiful visuals. Malaika Arora sizzles in ‘Kevvu Keka’ and this song will entice B and C center crowds.
Minus Points :
Ajay has a very small role and does not have much to do. Same goes for Kota Srinivasa Rao. Except for the ‘Mandu Babulam’ song, he does not have any significant role in the film. There have been some major changes in the script, particularly in the second half and perhaps, the original storyline from Dabangg should have been used. Tanikella Bharani’s role does not dojustice to his talent.
The pace of narration dips slightly in the second half and care should have been taken to match the first half’s tempo. The required emotional depth is missing in the run up towards the climax. The climax sequence could have been handled better. The voice used to dub for Shruti Haasan is a little odd.
Technical Aspects :
Cinematography is outstanding and the film has great visuals. In particular, the songs shot in Europe are beautiful and DI work is impressive, Editing is OK. Fights have been conceived well.
Devi Sri’s music is a major asset to the film and background score is impressive. Special mention must be made of Harish Shankar’s dialogues. They are a major asset for the film and when delivered in Pawan’s trademark fashion, the effect is outstanding. Harish succeeds brilliantly in the first half as a director but fails to repeat that brilliance in the second half.
Finally :
Pawan Kalyan’s fans will have a very enjoyable time while watching Gabbar Singh. The movie has good comedy, superb dialogues and some very entertaining episodes from Pawan. the sheer brilliance of the first half and a sterling performance from Pawan make Gabbar Singh a solidly entertaining watch. Thumbs up for Gabbar Singh.
