It has been a year since Bajrangi Bhaijaan hit the theatres and Salman stole our hearts with his performance. Can he repeat the same with Sultan?
Ali Abbas Zafar, presents his third venture, after Mere Brother ki Dulhan and Gunday. And with each movie this man is jumping up the scale by leaps and bounds. Credited for story, screenplay, dialogues and direction for Sultan, these are a lot of hats for one individual to don, leave aside the fact that he has to handle, delicately, a superstar like Salman. That said, Zafar scores in each of the departments and passes with flying colours in presenting Salman Khan in another title role, which everyone associated with the movie will be AND SHOULD BE proud of.
As per the story doing the rounds, the film is about a wrestler training a nobody to become something. The only difference is, contrary to perception, the nobody is Salman & the wrestler is Anushka Sharma.
Without giving away the plot, the film is about a man’s rise in life, because he fell in love.
Fantastic music by Vishal – Shekhar, you will come out humming the Sultan title track in a positive manner. Background score by another Salman favourite, Julius Packiam is another strong character in the film. With the exception of the initial kite chase, which does sound like the trak of Mombasa from Inception, the entire background score is brilliant. With the signature tune playing whenever the lead pair are on screen ringing the same emotions which the tune of Jab Tak Hain Jaan did. Lyrics by Irshad Kamil again are a winner.
Kumud Mishra again delivers a note worthy supporting performance. The actor playing the supporting role of Govind is a scene stealer. Ivan Rodrigues in a cameo is good. Kubra Sait not only looks fabulous but brings to screen the same live wire energy which she does in real life. Meiyang Chang is good too.
Amit Sadh does a fantastic job as the yuppie in a new startup. After Kai Po Che he gets a good opportunity and holds up in front of Salman with great ease.
Randeep Hooda in a special appearance, has you eating out of his hands from the word go. Brilliant and fantastic would be understatements for his no nonsense coach. Specially commendable are his one liners with which he goads Sultan into transforming himself.
Anushka Sharma, shows after a long time, what a great actor she is. Effortless in her dialect, her character and ease in which she shares screen space with Salman for the first time. What is brilliant is that they look as a natural couple, not the ‘good for the screen’ type chocolate pairs. Anushka deserves a big round of applause for her portrayal of Aarfa.
Zafar has to take a bow. He has taken a simple story line and presented it in such a brilliant narrative. Shifting between 3 time zones, he does not lose grip on his core subject even once. The way he has shown the rise of Sultan in Haryana, not focussing on his initial glory too much, leaving it for the resurgence in Delhi which has a tremendous impact. He has presented the couple also in a much more realistic manner. The frustration of Sultan when trying to get into his costume and seeing his paunch is one of the most brilliant scenes in the movie. The competition too, doesn’t seem as hollow as in last year’s Brothers. The fights haves also been choreographed brilliantly. The impact of the blows and the slams is tremendous. The POV cinematography by Artur Zurawski is commendable.
Salman Khan does it yet again. After Bajrangi, he has found his groove as an actor and he raises the bar way up with Sultan. Not only are his physical transformations, yes, twice in the film, commendable. The naughty local nobody, to the arrogant champion, the fallen and the underdog, not to forget the lovable husband seeking forgiveness. The signature step in Jag Ghoomeiya is going to make clubs increase the space on the dance floors, since all will start aping it soon. Salman is as real and as natural as the wrestler as one can be. But where he scores full marks is in portraying the man fighting his own demons in an attempt to regain is respect and love. Full marks.
The issue is not whether the film will be a hit, the point is, whether it will cross 100crores in 3 days, which some movies take 3 weeks to cross, an another 100 on the weekend. That is the bar which the status of the superstar Salman Khan film needs to raise.
Rating : 4/5
By: Yusuf Poonawala
