Director:
Prabhudheva
Cast:
Akshay
Kumar,
Amy
Jackson,
Lara
Dutta,
Kay
Kay
Menon,
Rati
Agnihotri,
Kunal
Kapoor,
Yograj
Singh
By
Saibal
Chatterjee
The
male
protagonist
of
Singh
is
Bliing
is
a
Punjab
villager
Raftaar
Singh
(Akshay)
who,
in
the
company
of
his
robust
friends,
bumbles
his
way
from
one
mischief
to
another,
earning
the
ire
of
the
family
patriarch
(Yograj
Singh).
Constantly
shielded
by
his
doting
mother
(Rati
Agnihotri),
Raftaar
makes
a
hash
of
a
job
as
a
zookeeper.
A
lion
escapes
from
its
cage
and
Raftaar
is
compelled
to
replace
the
feline
with
a
dog.
His
exasperated
and
angry
papaji
sends
him
to
Goa
to
work
for
a
casino
owner.
There
he
earns
the
confidence
of
his
employer
and
is
given
charge
of
Sara
Rana,
an
English-speaking
girl
(Amy
Jackson),
who
has
arrived
from
Romania
to
look
for
her
mother.
Trouble
is
that
Raftaar
Singh
doesn't
know
a
word
of
English
and
he
has
to
fall
back
on
an
interpreter
(Lara
Dutta)
to
communicate
with
the
beautiful
guest
who,
as
it
transpires,
needs
no
bodyguard.
Sara
is
a
bare-knuckles
freestyle
fighter
who
can
reduce
the
toughest
pf
men
to
quivering
wrecks
in
a
jiffy.
In
the
film's
only
out-of-the-ordinary
sequence,
a
drug
dealer
and
his
men
pulverize
Raftaar
in
a
bar.
Sara
steps
in
to
rescue
the
hero.
By
the
end
of
the
brawl,
the
lady
is
the
only
person
standing.
Performances:
Singh
is
Bliing
is
only
for
Akshay
Kumar
fans,
but
both
Amy
Jackson
and
Lara
Dutta
to
have
their
moments.
Jackson
is
a
pretty
face
but
she
also
makes
her
presence
felt
as
an
actress
both
in
the
action
scenes
and
softer
romantic
moments.
Lara
Dutta's
comic
timing
is
exceptional,
but
there
just
isn't
enough
meat
in
her
character
to
allow
her
to
rise
above
the
runaway
mediocrity.
The
film
also
has
Kay
Kay
Menon,
one
of
Bollywood's
better
character
actors,
in
the
role
of
a
grotesque
bad
guy
whose
pet
refrain
is:
"easy
is
boring".
So,
he
goes
looking
for
shrill
drama
in
everything
that
he
does.
Even
by
the
standards
of
Prabudheva
films,
this
villain
is
ludicrous,
neither
comical
nor
ominous.
It
is
doubtful
if
Kay
Kay
Menon
has
ever
looked
more
stupid
on
the
screen.
Technicalities:
Unfortunately,
Singh
is
Bliing
is
so
utterly
brainless
that
no
matter
how
enthusiastically
Akshay
strives
to
make
it
work
with
his
brand
of
buffoonery,
he
only
hits
his
head
against
a
shoddy
wall
of
a
script.
Singh
is
Bliing
is
Prabhudheva's
first
'original'
Hindi
film,
but
it
recycles
all
the
cliched,
lowbrow
tropes
he
is
known
for.
But
the
gags
that
he
comes
up
with
are
vacuous
and
the
dialogue
borders
on
the
utterly
inane.
Punjab,
Goa,
Romania
–
the
film
travels
across
three
locations.
Cinematographer
Dudley
frames
the
beauty
of
the
landscapes
and
the
skylines
to
great
effect.
If
only
the
film
had
more
substance,
the
contribution
of
the
camerawork
would
have
made
a
difference
to
the
final
product.
As
completely
meaningless
as
its
silly
title,
Singh
is
Bliing
is
an
attempted
comedy
that
is
funny
for
all
the
wrong
reasons.
It
has
no
story,
no
screenplay
and
no
logic.
Co-produced
by
Akshay
Kumar
himself,
the
film
is
designed
to
give
the
Bollywood
star
a
standard
range
of
things
to
do
on
the
screen.
On
his
part,
with
all
his
mannerisms
intact,
he
plunges
headlong
into
the
assignment.
Verdict:
Painfully
trashy,
Singh
is
Bliing
is
a
travesty
of
a
movie
that
reduces
comedy
to
a
poor
joke.