Dabangg - Time Pass

Watched 'Dabangg' this morning at Ramakrishna Glitterati with Ranjan, Rama and LV. They did not like it one bit. But I did. I mean you got to expect what a movie like Dabangg can dish out - no soft, sweet, clever, intelligent stuff. It's just Salman and muscle and UP lingo and its total timepass. Okay, the fights were a bit stretched but you can ignore that.

Salman is Chulbul Pande, the dabangg police officer i.e. slightly off his rocker police officer. Now Chulbul is corrupt but he is also known as Robin Hood Pande. Chulbul has a big chip on his shoulder - he is the stepson of his father Prajapati Pande (Vinod Khanna) who had married Chulbul's widowed mother Dimple Kapadia. Now they have Makki (Arbaaz) as their son and Chulbul is pretty clear from his childhood that his step father and step brother are not on his like list. He actually hates them. Makki, is kind of slow in the head, says his asthmatic mother and tells Chulbul to take care of him. Anyway Chulbul is too busy making money off all kinds of corrupt deals and falling in love with Rajo (Sonakshi Sinha) who looks perfect for the role she plays.
Until the interval we have no clue where we are going because no villain has surfaced yet but its entertaining with Chulbul around.

After the interval things hot up. Rajo's father dies paving the way for the marriage, Dimple dies paving the way for Chulbul to move out and clear out of his step father's house, Makki gets everything in place for his marriage with Mahi Gill but is thwarted by Chulbul who hijacks the wedding to get married himself (why? and why did they not get Makki married as well after that?) and Chulbul's small war with a local don Chedhi Singh heightens. Chedhi burns down Vinod Khanna's mill causing a cardiac arrest, as a consequence of which Makki the foolish joins Chedhi Singh and pretty much kills off some 50 people with a bomb and almost kills of Chulbul before confessing to Chulbul his dirty deeds. Chulbul decides to bury the hatchet with Vinod Khanna and in a moving scene calls him Papa instead of Pande ji. And then all hell breaks loose with several cars being blown up and finally Chedi Singh getting what he deserved. All's well and that ends well.

Nothing much to take home and chew. Leave Dabangg in the theatre and head home. But the time spent there was worth it, if only to meet Chulbul Pande.