Having never before watched a Bollywood movie, I rented this one because the title song featured in an International Day performance at uni, and I was curious why some people reacted as if it was a legendary thing.

Singh is Kinng is the story of a c... (read more) Having never before watched a Bollywood movie, I rented this one because the title song featured in an International Day performance at uni, and I was curious why some people reacted as if it was a legendary thing.

Singh is Kinng is the story of a clumsy but good natured guy in a small village. Because he is so clumsy that, every time he tries to save the day, he does more damage than good, the village conspire to get rid of him. Fortunately for them, two brothers who emigrated to Australia, Lucky and Mika, are gangsters (kings). The gangsters end up in the newspaper for some misdeed, upsetting the parents and family of the two emigres. Happy vows to save the day by bringing the gangsters home and reforming them.

A brief diversion to Egypt, a romantic interest, and lots of corny but cheap music video moments later, and Happy ends up as king, with Lucky in a sort of coma. Then the main plot starts.

This movie felt like it was 3 hours long. A lot of plot. A lot of attempts at humour, but the comic timing is not there, and the film feels like its slapstick is too slow, but its plot too fast. Music videos interrupt the story, and the characters are never really interesting. A lot of hamfisted acting...

Well, it isn't really up to the standards of movies I enjoy, on every single level. It is a shallow movie, and a pretty boring one. Mostly, I ended up convinced that Bollywood is not the right genre for me - if even one of the most expensive and successful Bollywood movies is this disappointing, I am not sure I want to see any others.

The one thing that did surprise me is how white the cast was. I had not expected the film to look like a made-for-TV Brit-flick, with a cast whose skin tones range from pale English to slightly Mediterranean. I am sure that India is an ethnically diverse nation, where not everyone has darker skin, but the cast in this movie made me worried that Western beauty ideals are somehow undermining local culture everywhere else. (A recent news story mentioning how many women in Africa use skin bleaching products perhaps sensitised me to this issue). I'm all for economic (and even linguistic) globalisation - but not for the globalisation of beauty / skin colour / race ideals!

Standard mindless and entertaining Bollywood fare.

really funny movie...
akshay is awesome in this movie...
loved the songs...

Silly slapstick and utterly mindless-but fun! Snoop Dog at the end is probably better than the whole film!!!

Simple plot and nothing extravagant except for the hype. Not one of the best movies of the year. Om Puri did well here.

The story wasn't so great, but the music is good.... and since I really only watched it for that reason anyway... I didn't walk away too disappointed.

The nice background score and beautiful shooting locations do not match the lame storyline. However, it's good enough for entertainment purpose. Akshay is funnier in Chandni Chowk to China.