Deva, kya hua?

Remember when Singh was King? Well now we all know he is not! However, this time he is not even the more famous silent, helpless, caught in the web Singh. This Singh outing is a tryst with the ludicrously silly with not a tangential moment of sanity.

Bereft of any sensitivity or respect to the intelligence of the viewer— even assuming the audience in its collective— have left their grey cells behind and have walked in at their own risk. One may well maintain that Prabhu Deva’s name in the credit titles is caution enough! The guy surpasses himself.

Yes he proves that it is possible and the abyss is immeasurable. Will someone please, please tell the supple-footed dancer to stick to the art he is familiar with!Meant to be a comedy or pretentiously designed to be one, the joke is on you. 141 minutes of crazy insanity – loud in every aspect: colour, music, sound, dress and emotions.

It does not test your intelligence; it questions it and insults it beyond repair. Anyone who defines this product as entertainment needs immediate medical attention and could well be a psychiatrist’s challenge.There is this without a cause boisterous village somewhere in Punjab where the decibel levels must be the highest on the planet.

There is the family headed by papa stern (Yograj Singh) and mama soft (Rati Agnihotri) who together have imposed one huge mistake in a hurry and have even named him speed: Raftaar Singh (Akshay) who is actually rough tear. He is that proverbial good for nothing who has a team of morons backing him up.

Stern papa is trying to correct him and mama soft is always feeding him. You have uncles, aunts, cousins and forms of needless nuisance employed to satisfy some employment stats. After being good for nothing for long— just at the time when you decide to have a good afternoon at the multiplex— papa packs Raftaar to Goa to the tutelage of Kirpal Singh (Pradeep Rawat). Cut and move to Romania.

Why? That is one question you will never ask in the 141 minutes except when you kick yourself for not asking the same before you got yourself the ticket. In Romania— the centre for all the bad guys, we have Marc (Kay Kay Menon) who obviously was blackmailed into accepting this role.

Marc is insulted by Lady Kung fu Sarah (Amy Jackson). Marc does dad off and threatens matrimony with Lady Kung fu who instead of staying back and using her skill sets on the guy moves to Goa where our Kirpal is anyway running an asylum. Mr Speed meets Ms Kung Fu.

Since language is a barrier they get in Ms Konky – translator Emily (Lara Dutta- bespectacled and behaving like Sushmita Mukherjee gone wrong). OK when Ms Kung fu is not beating up the local baddies or waiting for international baddy, she is searching for lost mamma who dad (Kunal Kapoor looking like the fattest Kapoor on the planet) had left for some reason.

Now as Prabhu Deva knits together his colourful tapestry and ends up with a garish quilt, you have also songs which say things like Chu chaa chin cha….. This Southern Spice with Punjabi Tadka is a recipe for disaster. At the end of the film you have a Punjabi newspaper shot thrown at you. Yes you cannot read a word of it or decipher what it is all about. So symbolic of the film!

By:L Ravichander