Producers: Arbaaz Khan, Malaika Arora Khan , Dhilin Mehta Director: Abhinav Singh Kashyap Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Arbaaz Khan, Sonu Sood, Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia

MUMBAI: Dabangg lives every common man’s fantasy; an invincible hunk, police man, Chulbul Pandey, who can fell any evildoer. What is more, unlike the 70s’ angry young man with sullen expressions, Chulbul loves to enjoy and have fun out of his acts of cleansing the society, which adds entertainment and humour to this, otherwise mindless, action movie.

In a typical UP semi urban scenario, Chulbul grows up to be a sour man who becomes fearless and a defiant policeman. Bearing total disregard for his step father, Vinod Khanna, and disdain for his step brother, Arbaaz Khan, he sticks around with them because of his mother, Dimple Kapadia. These surroundings, he has not learnt to respect much. So he is just the hero to be pitted against politicians, bad ones on one side and less bad on the other. Chulbul is a corrupt policeman for no apparent reason, or maybe to make him more identifiable with a UP cop or for that matter any cop!

Dabangg is a Salman Khan vehicle all the way, a one man entertainment show. Almost all action, comedy, dance and music and some namesake emotions are designed around him in this film, which has no solid story or cause for the hero’s crusade and to his credit, Salman Khan carries the film through with flying colours. There have been post-Wanted expectations, which the film’s content does not live up to, but Salman Khan more than lives up to it and hence the film’s collections will also excel. 

The film introduces Sonakshi Sinha in a role she can’t be rejected for even if it does not propel her to the stardom overnight. She is presented as a simple village potter’s daughter; no glamour, no exposure nor great demands to display histrionics. Arbaaz Khan is okay. Sonu Sood, judged individually, does well for himself. However, Salman Khan’s character has been built so larger than life, his is not the villain equipped to take him on. Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia, Anupam Kher, Om Puri, Vishwajeet Pradhan and Tinnu Anand fit the bill.

The major asset that boosts the prospects for Dabangg is its music. While the item number, Munni Badnam hui….. is already a rage, other numbers are also good and choreographed to entertain. While the credit should go to the writers for making Dabangg a good watch despite lack of a coherent story, director Abhinav Singh Kashyap needs to be praised for being part of the writer duo and then adding to the entertainment quotient with his execution. Dialogue is funny.

Dabangg built huge expectations before its release, a rare occurrence in recent times, and has gone on to live up to it by drawing full houses all over, at single screens and multiplexes alike. It is all set to create new opening day as well as opening weekend box office records.