Star Power: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Malaika Arora
Overall Rating: 4 out of 7 chilies
Music: 5 out of 7 chilies
Choreography: 4.5 out of 7 chilies
Summary:
When his mother marries again after his father's death, young Chulbul Pandey finds his home life on shaky ground. His new stepfather consistently passes over him for his stepbrother Makkhi, while Makkhi resents his new mother's favoritism of Chulbul.
Twenty years later, Chulbul, (Salman Khan) is a tough policeman who is not above taking money under the table from petty criminals and relationships within his family are as lopsided as ever. Both brothers have fallen for local girls, Chulbul with a young woman he met on one of his police raids, Rajo, (Sonakshi Sinha) and Makkhi (Arbaaz Khan) continuing the romance he has had for many years with a poor girl called Nirmala. Rajo's father is a drunk and Rajo is devoted to his care, determined not to marry in order to take care of him. Chulbul returns home disheartened, and finds that his mother has died from a heart attack. Rajo's father sees that his daughter has a chance of a happy life with Chulbul so he decides to end it all and release her. Meanwhile, Makkhi's father is deep in debt and is looking instead for a rich girl to marry Makkhi, so in despiration, Makkhi steals the money his brother keeps in a safe in his mother's room and asks Nirmala's father to offer it as Nirmala's dowry. When Chulbul discovers what his brother has done, he crashes his brother's wedding and forces the priest to marry him and Rajo instead. Nirmala's father, embarassed, calls off the wedding. Their family now bitterly divided, Chulbul must now face off against both his brother and Chedi Singh, (Sonu Sood) a gangster with political ties who Chulbul has clashed with before. To get at Chulbul, Chedi Singh begins insidiously destroying Makkhi's life, turning the brothers even further against each other. Can Chulbul bring Chedi to justice before his family conflict ends in tragedy?
Comments:
Dabangg is pure Salman Khan, and if you don't mind over-the-top action and lots of rakish posing, this movie is a lot of fun. If the summary seems a little convoluted, it's because the plot was that way, though it's the action sequences and songs that really steal the show. The funny thing about this film is that out of the 9 or 10 central characters, only one or two are actually good people. Our hero is unabashedly corrupt, and we are meant to love him for it. Almost all of the songs are enjoyable and catchy, though the standouts for me are the item song "Munni Badnaam Hui" with Malaika Arora, and "Tere Mast Mast Do Nain".
