An Jo: ‘Veer’ Sooryavanshi
Disclaimers Out of 15, I picked top 4:
1. Major Spoilers/Disappointments
2. No intent of comparison to Hollywood or ANY claim of superior intelligence or ‘taste’. I love Suppandi
3. No intent of bringing down the morale of the Hindi film industry
4. No claim over ‘masala’ and English ‘Grammar’
When Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV, who is utterly unfit to view or understand commercial Hindi cinema, rated it a 3 on 5, I was bowled over! This was like Ray giving ‘Gunda’ a thumbs-up! Then it is decided; this is going to be a full-on blast for me! And 2 shows were immediately added yesterday in DC [there were only 2 decided for the week – ‘Sone pe Suhaaga’; 2 more shows.
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SATYAMSHOT 
November 8, 2021 at 4:36 PM
Extraordinary Writing. Had a blast reading this review. 🤣
I did enjoy the film, so would beg to differ but i enjoyed your review more than the film.
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November 8, 2021 at 4:55 PM
Very sportive of you Naveen. Thanks much.
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November 8, 2021 at 6:40 PM
Yes, not that i wasn’t disappointed with Sooryavanshi.
I feel commercial cinema has still not got the balance right in Hindi. Barring few movies, most have several flaws in screenplay, direction, story, pace of the film, the topics they pick, music, etc.
Sooryavanshi was looking 4.5/5 for me from the trailer. It scratched to 3.5 for me at the end and barely. Not that if i give it 3/5 it would change for me.
I for one did not like the climax. I did mention it in my review as well where i thought climax could have been intelligent now that most audience have matured to love an URI etc.
I had similar issues with Tanhaji, HF4, but what i realised is that there is a big audience for these.
Kesari is amongst the best AK movie if i have to pick his last 5-6. What a memorable climax it had. However it was his smallest hit. Even a Laxmii did better commercially. If Kesari had released in place of Bell Bottoms and in such hostile release environments, it would not have crossed 25 cr as the market was 20% of normal.
What i think is, the best movies now are those that nett 150-200 cr. They have a good and intelligent story line.
There are commercial liberties taken at the expense of a movie for all movies.
Even Dangal’s climax was made Aamir focussed to be commercially viable. Sultan, PK, etc. had several issues though far lesser than the likes of Sooryavanshi. The last true blockbuster experience for me was URI.
We never had directors who can make good actioners. The story continues.
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November 8, 2021 at 7:11 PM
Hilarious!
Thanks for the read, AnJo
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November 8, 2021 at 8:41 PM
This needs a repeat reading!
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November 9, 2021 at 1:52 AM
ROFLMAO. Winning formula found! You should have said ‘Doctor, Doctor’ after getting the drinks!
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November 9, 2021 at 10:10 AM
LOL Good idea Jay; will follow-through on this next time…
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November 9, 2021 at 6:13 AM
Post has been updated to point to Baradwaj Rangan’s blog.
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November 9, 2021 at 6:47 AM
Lol bhai.. le li Shetty anna ki aapne.. honestly, a cringeworthy Simmba was far more blasphemous in making light & a mockery of a serious societal issue like rape than Sooryavanshi did with terrorism.
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November 9, 2021 at 8:58 AM
That is for sure. I agree Shivaay. As I said, the only thing I liked in SIMBAA was Ranveer. His exuberance and his complete surrender to south-style masala and dialogue delivery was too magnetic. But then, even in the 2nd part, there was an arc to Simbaa’s character I believe in the sense that there’s an incident that changes him: He is careless when it happens to others, but when it happens to one of his own; then he changes. Not saying that’s a great development, but at least Shetty took the pain to show some difference between pre-post the event, though of course, Ranveer still resorts to the same shenanigans during his revenge course.
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November 9, 2021 at 9:25 AM
Yes, there’s a definite arc to Simmba’s character — and some of the masala tropes do hit home.
Simmba being an orphan; not picking up coins from the floor a la Deewaar; the corrupt cop act is an allusion to Bachchan’s role in Shehenshah; the eventual transformation — it’s all well written.
And he does become ‘serious’ after his transformation into a good cop. He gives up his civilian clothes for one and there are hardly any comic scenes beyond the second half. Sonu Sood as the chief villain was also a well written character — a person who understands that his brothers had committed a heinous crime but had to avenge their deaths to due to loyalty to his family!
Simmba isn’t great cinema by any means but it’s a definite step up from the regular drivel that comes out of Shetty’s stable.
And, of course, Ranveer’s performance is quite brilliant. His dance sequences in Simmba Aala and Mera Waala Dance are also quite good.
Not to mention, Simmba has the best trending amongst all of Rohit Shetty’s films, which points to good word-of-mouth as well.
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November 9, 2021 at 9:51 AM
Singham trended better than Simmbaa if I’m not wrong. Its also a much better film in terms of ‘seriousness’ and less tacky than the bugging over the top shenanigans of Bhalerao Sangram. Not that that’s saying much! Personally I preferred Sooryavanshi to both Singham and Simmba.
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November 9, 2021 at 6:16 PM
Personal taste and opinion are different things. I’m not going to begrudge that for a second; different strokes and all that.
With regards to trending, Simmbadefinitely trended better compared to Singham as it had a much bigger opening (roughly 50% more, after accounting for inflation) and it ended up with a slightly bigger multiplier as well, in the end.
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November 9, 2021 at 9:09 AM
I have to watch it on OTT to get the points!
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November 10, 2021 at 3:45 AM
Hilarious. Great writing!
No words on the marketing gimmick tip tip barsa pani, featuring a 54-year something Akshay? I’ll give a pass to Katrina because to still be a leading actress at 38 and perform a dance number is rare for a Hindi film actress.
Speaking of tip tip, I’m reminded of Mohra, possibly the greatest entertaining potboiler of Akki in the 90s. This shouldn’t hold a candle to that one.
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November 10, 2021 at 4:28 AM
I’ve checked the song already. Raveena option is way better!
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November 10, 2021 at 5:05 AM
Raveena was more voluptuous, sensous and everything else, plus yellow sari>>whatever atrocity Kat wore.
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November 10, 2021 at 8:57 AM
This song was done with covid restrictions?
If yes, why choose a titillating, sensual, sexually arousing song that requires touchy feely stuff to ‘heighten’ mostly males? Kind of a big waste of such an iconic song. Anti climax basically.
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November 10, 2021 at 9:10 AM
This song was always part of the movie, shot way before even Good Newwz released. Highly disappointing, Raveena Tandon in grainy footage ‘heightened’ me more than Katrina in HD.
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November 10, 2021 at 9:49 AM
You guys are too picky, i’ll take them both…
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