Subhash K Jha looks back at Salman Khan’s Dabanng, that marked the debut film of Sonaksji Sinja, which is celebrating 15 years since the action comedy hit the big screen.
Welcome to a new genre of cinema. The Spaghetti Eastern. The velocity is virulent. The violence is relentless. The narrative doesn’t pause for action. It is between bouts of the violence that characters take a breather to say things to one another that they don’t really mean.
This then is DabanngDabanngDabanngShool on steroids. In Shool, Manoj Bajpayee was the honest cop on a cleansing spree in a Bihari backwater town. In Dabangg, Salman takes on the mofussil mafia with much more humour than Bajpayee could muster.
It is the need of the hour. We have to laugh away the corruption and violence all around us. Salman does a splendid job of it. It’s hard to tell where debutant director Abhinav Kashyap’s abilities end and the action director Vijayan Master’s begin. That seamless quality goes well with this unpunctuated tribute to the spirit of free-for-all one-upmanship.
An ear-catching music score by Sajid-Wajid does diminish the level of violence in the presentation. Sonakshi Sinha uses her eyes beautifully. And the song ‘Tere Mast Mast Do Nain’ describes her eloquent expressions well.
But this is a Salman Khan vehicle all the way. He gets to be funny sassy wicked and belligerent…sometimes all at once. Sonu Sood as the main antagonist brings an in-your-face menace to his villainy.He is in character. Though Salman slips out of character quite often…And quite happily.
