Singham Returns

Plot

Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgan) gets transferred to Mumbai and he discovers that one of his team members (Mahesh) is found dead inside an ambulance with massive bags of money. Bajirao decides to unearth the truth behind it and in this process, he collides with a powerful and fraudulent religious leader, Satyaraj Chandar a.k.a. Babaji (Amole Gupte), who has high-profile connections with corrupt politicians.

During this period, Guruji (Anupam Kher), is killed by Babaji, even though Singham was present at the scene. He vows revenge. Because of this, he has to pretend that he has resigned in front of his family. Due to this his father asks him and his childhood friend, Avni (Kareena Kapoor Khan), to come to their home town, Shivgarh. After some comic scenes, Singham and Avni, fall in love with each other. However, it is then revealed that Singham hasn't resigned and came to Shivgargh on a mission to get some evidences against Babaji.

When they get back to Mumbai, Babaji starts threatening Singham's family. He also harms all of Guruji's candidates, including Avni, because her brother is one of the candidates. Singham manages to save everyone but before they resign, one of Babaji's henchmen, Altaf (Pankaj Tripathi), wakes up from coma and testifies against him. Singham arrests Babaji and his left hand, Prakash Rao. However, some party workers execute an attack outside the court, killing the witnesses. This causes Babaji and Prakash Rao to receive bail. But after Babaji gets released, Singham goes to his house without wearing his police uniform and shoots at their buttocks to coerce them and the wounded Prakash Rao and Baba tell the truth.

A few weeks later, Guruji's party wins the elections. While being transported to jail, Prakash Rao and Baba once again threaten Singham. Suddenly, the van in which Prakash Rao and Baba are being transported in suddenly stops and the driver walks away. A water tanker crashes into the van and both of them are killed. Inspector Phadnis (Vineet Sharma) tells media that there was a brake failure, and the incident is deemed an accident.

Cast

Filming

Director Rohit Shetty announced his thoughts on making a sequel to one of his finest movies Singham (2011). After filming Chennai Express with Shahrukh Khan, Shetty reportedly has begun filming for Singham 2 with the lead star Ajay Devgn. Filming was expected to go on floors by December 2013 after Shetty's last directorial venture, Chennai Express (2013) released with Shetty starting the work of Singham 2's pre-production along with that of his another film which incidentally is a sequel too, Golmaal 4. However Ajay Devgn the lead of the film canned 20 days of photography for his another film Action Jackson, directed by Prabhudeva and start another leg of the shoot from 10 November 2013. After several delays owing to Devgn's shooting his other film Action Jackson concurrently the principal photography for a 15-day schedule of the film started from 15 May 2014 in Goa. The shoot was held in few places like streets of Siolim, a village at located at a distance of about 25 Kilometres from Panaji. The ones which were held in Panaji were mostly indoor ones.

Music

The soundtrack for the film was composed by Jeet Gannguli, Meet Bros Anjjan, Ankit Tiwari and Yo Yo Honey Singh. All the composers composed one song each. The Soundtrack album contains four songs and one remix.

The first single track "Kuch Toh Hua Hai" sung by Ankit Tiwari and Tulsi Kumar was released on 25 July 2014.

Another single "Aata Majhi Satakli" sung and composed by Yo Yo Honey Singh was released on 1 August 2014.

Reception

Prior to its release on the eve of Independence Day on 15 August, a right-wing Hindu organisation, HJS wrote to the CBFC asking that the film be banned on grounds of depiction of Hindu saints in a bad light thereby hurting the religious sentiments. Shetty denied the allegation stating that he has never made anything controversial in his career.

Singham Returns received mixed reviews from Indian critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 4 stars and said "The film is a complete mass entertainer with power-packed drama, hi-intensity dialogue and towering performances as its aces. The brand value attached to it coupled with a long weekend will help the film reap a harvest and rule the box office in days to come." Rohit Khilnani of India Today gave 3 stars and said "Singham Returns is strictly for fans". Shweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times gave two stars and said "Watch Singham Returns for the action, not comedy". Mohar Basu of Koimoi gave 2.5 stars and said "Ajay Devgan and the thrills his punches manage to evoke but the wafer thin plotline, hammy acting, predictable narrative and the lack of fun and excitement that drives a Rohit Shetty film". Shubra Gupta of the Indian Express gave 1.5 stars and said "The sequel to 'Singham' is chock full of the usual car on jeep action. Explosions go off at regular intervals. Shootouts – one really well shot – occur frequently." Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 2.5 stars and said "The predictable story tires you out eventually".

Box office

Singham Returns nett. Collection over ₹32.09 crore (US$5.0 million) on the first day of its release in India. Domestic nett of Singham Returns are ₹140.62 crore (US$22 million). The film earned a final worldwide gross collection of ₹215.57 crore (US$34 million).