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Simmba: Ranveer Singh roars back into his own as an actor

Updated : January 18, 2019 06:13 PM IST

Simmba is indeed a cub – his smallness can be equated to his outsider status in the industry – who is now leading the pride.

Yes, you heard right. Rohit Shetty’s film Simmba has gone and made a lot of money. A lot. Its box office collection has now beaten Chennai Express, made by the same Shetty. With a worldwide collection of over Rs 350 crore, the figures can only go up and up. All this in the era of Zero and Thugs of Hindostan. So what went so right with this film?

First, let’s look at the wrongs. Anti-rape rhetoric, fake feminism, no central female character, too much dishum dishum and a lead actor playing to the gallery. Hamming is a Hindi film actor’s birthright and Ranveer Singh in the title role of Simmba does a lot of it. But here’s the thing: the hamming is actually funny. That rare thing happens when Simmba hams, it is a send-up that the audiences actually get.

Film-goers ask for honest entertainment; they only want to be respected by filmmakers. And this is a potpourri of fun and spot-on understanding of audience tastes. Masala films usually leave out the logic for delusions of grandeur.

They are mounted on a lavish scale and the sets are visibly high-budget. The resultant lack of chemistry between all characters and the absence of authentic dialogues is a given.

And then came Simmba. This totally corrupt cop, in fact, displays very good chemistry with himself. Much too comfy in his too-tight clothes, his swagger is exaggerated and his shyness with the love of his life is the right touch of subtle. In every scene he is in – and he is in every scene – Simmba knows what feature of his to overplay.

Which brings us to the embarrassing debacles that top heroes have been suffering recently; due to age, over-exposure, bad scripts and too much hype. Not to mention the N word – nepotism. Actors hand over the acting baton to their offspring despite no noticeable talent.

All this makes Ranveer’s success all the more a talking point. That he chanellised his famed high energy into the role of this iconic con artist with such spectacular results augurs well for all the underdog non-filmi would-be actors who file into Bollywood with stars in their eyes.

To deliver the dialogues of a typical Hindi film in an applause-worthy way is a challenge. Mass heroes walk the thin line between hysteria and histrionics. To infuse all of this with humour is an impossible task, but Ranveer does it.

The scenes where Simmba tells off Durva Ranade (the villain, Sonu Sood in equally tight clothes), especially after killing off the latter’s two brothers, are paisa vasool. Again, because some leavening with wit happens. To have jokes that don’t talk down to us, but surprise us now and then – that’s all that a Hindi film-goer prays for.

It is heartening to watch Ranveer come into his own as an actor – not aided by the Bhansali bigness of vision but his own humble innovations. Simmba is indeed a cub – his smallness can be equated to his outsider status in the industry – who is now leading the pride. Truly, the mind is blowing.

Shinie Antony is a writer and editor based in Bangalore. Her books include The Girl Who Couldn't Love, Barefoot and Pregnant, Planet Polygamous, and the anthologies Why We Don’t Talk, An Unsuitable Woman, Boo. Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Asia Prize for her story A Dog’s Death in 2003, she is co-founder of the Bangalore Literature Festival and director of the Bengaluru Poetry Festival.

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Simmba: Ranveer Singh roars back into his own as an actor

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