#Dabangg3 #BollywoodHindiFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas Rating: * *

Bollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Film: Dabangg 3



Cast: Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Nikhil Dwivedi, Saiee Manjrekar, Sonakshi Sinha,Khichcha Sudeep, Nikitin Dheer, Mahie Gill Tinnu Anand, Amole Gupte, Pankaj Tripathi, Nawab Shah, Sarfaraz Khan Director: Prabhu Devaa

Rating: * *

Runtime: 165 mins



Salman Khan’s Christmas release has all the markings of a Salman Khan extravaganza.This 3rd issue in the Dabangg series hopes to cash in on the previous two outings by presenting a familiar arch within the parameters of a past life. The narrative does not regress into ‘Punar janam’ mysticism but instead looks back on Chubul Pandey’s youthful foibles. His past love comes into the picture in a first half flashback…Pandey hasn’t yet earned his uniform and his then love , the naive Khushi (Saiee) becomes a victim of child trafficking …The trafficker is played by none other than Khichcha Sudeep aka Balli whose nefarious intentions destroy the two sweethearts young love and sets Chulbul on a redemptive path - now with uniform and married to a new sweetheart Rajjo (Sonakshi), and all set-up for a second half revenge story.



His vela brother Makkhi(Arbaaz), his mother(Dimple Kapadia) and his father ( now played by Pramod Khanna, Vinod Khanna’s lookalike brother) are the familiar characters in this rather unnecessary franchise instalment. Neither the action, the perennial swag, or the by now stale, repetitive style quotient allows for any meaningful attachment. The opening action sequence is rather drawn out and stretched thin. The rest of the action choreography is frenzied enough to give you a heavy head. The dialogues are distasteful, the songs are numerous but most of them are forgettable - Only a couple of them, Munna badnaam hua and the title track have the ability to get you grooving.



The bar is set so low here that the narrative looks like a meteor shower took out the very semblance of established movie mechanics here. Based on a story and screenplay also credited to Salman Khan himself alongside Prabhu Devaa, Aloke Upadhya with dialogues by Dilip Shukla and Aloke Upadhyay, Dabangg 3 makes other substandard Salman Khan films look really good in retrospect. Everything feels so flimsy and facile here that there’s no impact that’s worth remembering. Even the digging up of a surly past does little to lend character to Chulbul Pandey who continues to appear vaccuous and inconsistent as always. The crass humour is belittling, the representation of docile, naive, love interest is belittling even though Chulbul’s tackling of the issue of girl trafficking is meant to be the cause celebre here.The rather long and irredeemable runtime takes the mickey out of any enjoyment to be had here.



The narrative is slap-dash rather than coherence inducing and Salman’s action stunts look too fake to curry any favor even with fans. There’s also a major issue in having a fictional cop indulge in brutality at a time when Cop brutality in real-life has become a major problem in a multi-cultural democracy like India. Salman has become as slow as Sanjay Dutt is today and it will be a relief to see him play his age from here on. There’s certainly no room for another Chulbul Pandey outing unless its a reboot with a younger more agile and invested actor.



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