'Dabangg 3' review: Salman Khan's film is unnecessary

Every time Salman Khan hits goons in his new release  'Dabangg 3', dramatic music plays in the background with someone screaming 'Badass!' at regular intervals. In reality, the Prabhudeva directorial is just a pain in the ass. 

The third instalment of the hit franchise 'Dabangg' lacks originality and quirk of the first film and makes for a tedious watch. This, even though the makers managed to get almost all actors from the original film and weave a story that (they feel) connects to the first movie. 

There is literally nothing new in 'Dabangg 3' and it just simply rehashes an old, tried and tested narrative and milks Salman Khan's superstardom to the hilt. The result is a long arduous film where comedy is forced, dialogue bazi is jaded and stunts are mind-numbingly dumb.  

The film picks from where the second instalment had ended. Chulbul(Salman Khan) is living a blissful life with his family, which comprises of a seven-year son, wife Rajjo(Sonakshi Sinha), father (Vinod Khanna's brother Pramod Khanna takes up the role) and step-brother Makkhi (Arbaaz Khan). Between romancing his wife in the most cliched- cringe-worthy ways and taking potshots at his younger brother, Chulbul still manages to catch goons and criminals. 

One such case leads Chulbul to a den where women are being held captive and being sold off to brothels and other countries. While the madam of the sex racket gets caught, it takes Chulbul to the main leader- a mafia lord called Bali Singh (Kannada star Kiccha Sudeep). Now Bali and Chulbul go back a long way.  He was in love with Chulbul's fiance Khushi (debutant Saiee Manjrekar) and in a fit of rage had killed her when he realised she was in love with the good-for-nothing yet charming Chulbul. 

Now, a 'dabang' man like Chulbul would have ideally taken care of the villain soon after Khushi's death- which he did- as the film explains in slow motion and with dramatic music but because we needed a third instalment, Bali is back from the dead and creating more chaos in Chulbul's life. 

The first film had worked immensely for its dialogues and distinct characterization of the lead. The audience had loved the corrupt, immoral Chulbul who could charm his way into everyone's heart with his swag. But in the third film, writers Dilip Shukla, Aloke Upadhyaya mutilate that charismatic character by going overboard and explain in great detail the origins of Chulbul Pandey. You get to know why he flips his glasses at the back of collar, you are told how he got the name 'Chulbul' and where he first heard that famous 'Hum tumme itne chhed karenge...' line making Chulbul absolutely unoriginal - who has nothing that he can call his own or his original style.

Director Prabhudeva also seems obsessed with zooming into everyone's torso and below area. There are shots of Salman Khan flexing his behind to the tunes of 'Hud Hug Dabang', shots of Sonakshi's mid-riff (of course), shots of extras urinating in fear, shots of a someone's underwear being pulled to his face. I don't know why these make for entertainment or masala potboilers- but then looking for logic in a Prabhudeva-Salman Khan film is equivalent to looking for humans on Pluto. 

The makers pay zero attention to the authenticity of the characters and continuity. They speak a strange mix of Hindi and Bhojpuri, dance on the ghats of what seems like Benaras, romance in the ruins of Madhya Pradesh and fight in the green, rocky terrains of Karnataka. No one knows where the story is set in, quite honestly. Ever so often, Salman Khan also breaks into mini-monologues about women empowerment and safety. Yes, that happens. 

Salman Khan flexes muscles, punches and makes dents on iron doors, romances with a wooden face and does nothing that we haven't seen him doing already. He has got the Chulbul template right but that's nothing extraordinary. Newcomer Saiee looks pretty but her performance is nothing worth writing for. Sonakshi makes you remember her earlier films like 'Rowdy Rathore', 'Son Of Sardar' and the likes. The only actor who manages to somewhat impress in Sudeep who plays the evil Bali Singh with a certain amount of conviction. Much like Sood as Chhedi Singh in 'Dabangg', Sudeep manages to leave an impact with his role. 

It takes almost two hours for the director to establish the plot of the film, which says a lot because the entire run time of the film is 2 hours 42 minutes. Perhaps they could have done away with the unnecessary songs- that spring up every few minutes. Wait, they could have done away with the entire film maybe. 

If you do end up watching the film, you might question your life choices in general. Good luck!