Any film starring Salman Khan sends fans into paroxysms of delight but this one that fans have been looking forward to especially avidly. Bhai is here with the third edition of the superhit Dabangg franchise. First, there was great fanfare about the announcement of the dates of the teaser and the trailer; now there is fanfare that the 53 second Dabangg 3 teaser reintroduces the inimitable Chulbul Pandey. Predictably, the teaser is trending at no 1 currently.
It is all close-ups of the khaki uniform and Khan doing a few characteristic Chulbul Pandey moves. He mutters something about doing promos for the film and ends with Swagat to karo hamara (do welcome us); which appears to be something of a catchphrase.
The cop suddenly stops to dance to the caller tune of the criminal he is chasing – remember this from Dabangg? Well, people love that sort of thing. Apparently this is the definition of iconic.
As expected, the teaser quickly became the no. 1 trending video in India… because bhai and because slotting one's sunglasses into the back of the collar like that is that cool.
Chulbul Pandey is back and SK’s fans are delighted. I do wonder why. That is a very mediocre teaser content-wise. It is not very clever and depends entirely on Khan performing some of the pet Dabangg manoeuvres, which he presumably can sleepwalk through.
Salman Khan’s Twitter handle is now Chulbul Pandey. He shared the teaser and fans were predictably delirious with joy. Tens of thousands of likes and many thousands of retweets followed.
South Superstar Sudeep plays the villain in this film. This is something of a casting coup. As with all the Dabangg films, there will be a shirtless climax scene in this one as well; and this is apparently newsworthy.
This gushing 19 year old seems grateful to be breathing the same air as the superstar and was introduced at the recently concluded IIFA Awards. Saiee Manjrekar is the daughter of director-producer-actor Mahesh Manjrekar and according to reports, she will play Chulbul Pandey’s love interest from his college times in Dabangg 3. So Pandeyji gets to romance two women in this film: Sonakshi Sinha and Manjrekar.
When I watch the original Dabangg film, I quite enjoyed it. The angry, not-so-young man, the corrupt cop who plays Robin Hood silently, the Salman Khan style and swagger worked quite well. It was a little silly but it entertained, raised a few laughs and songs such as Hud Hud Dabangg and Tere Mast Mast Do Nain stuck stubbornly in the head. But then came Dabangg 2 and it was more of the same. It is likely that Dabangg 3 will repeat the done to death tropes of the previous films.
Also Pandeyji’s two love interests --- one who is 21 years younger than him (Sonakshi Sinha is 32) and the other who is about third his age (he is 53, Saiee Manjrekar is 19). How nice, how believable. It is up to the public to reject this unrealistic, lazy cinema that is dished up. If we are no longer content with repetitive, unoriginal fare that depends merely upon aging star-power, filmmakers will be forced to work harder for our approval. Meanwhile we shall have Dabangg 3 releasing on 20th December 2019 – and if Salman Khan fans say it is a good movie, it is a good movie.
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