This zesty extremely good natured Bollywood
outing managed to keep a silly smile on my face for nearly all of its two
hour plus running time. From India to Egypt to Australia it is full of energy
and good spirits and is just plain goofy fun. It is a basic Masala stew with
everything in there that the director could fit into his budget – lots of
action, music, corn ball comedy, pathos and of course romance. It wasn’t
until about the one third mark that I realized that it was basically a remake
of one of my favorite Jackie Chan films, Mr. Canton and Lady Rose
(a.k.a. Miracles) with a few slight deviations. The star of Singh
is Kinng, Akshay Kumar, has made no secret of his admiration of the Hong
Kong star over the years and though he is no Jackie Chan when it comes to
physical ability, Kumar gives it his best and is considered one of India’s
top action stars.
Here he plays Happy Singh, a small town
boy in the Punjab with no desire to go anywhere else. But though loved by
all of the town he is also the bane of their existence as he has a habit
of leaving behind a trail of accidental destruction wherever he goes. After
one such outing in which he tries to catch a chicken and inadvertently destroys
everything in his path, they come up with a plan to get rid of him. Down
under one of the town’s long departed sons Lucky Singh has become a notorious
gangster and the shame to this Sikh community is enormous. So they convince
Happy along with his friend (Om Puri) to travel to Australia and bring Lucky
back to the bosom of his family and away from his life of crime. No one really
thinks Happy will be able to do this and as soon as he is out of sight the
town breaks into a dancing celebration.
Through an odd mishap at the airport, the two board a plane for Egypt which of course gives them an opportunity to frolic among the pyramids along with scantily clothed women – all which must have made the Muslim Brotherhood delirious with joy. Here he meets a lovely Indian maiden Sonia (Katrina Kaif) who reminds me slightly of what an Indian Kennedy would look like with her load of teeth and a lean facial bone structure. Happy is smitten but has to move on to Australia where he is taken in by an older Indian woman who sells flowers. She gives him a rose for luck. She has a daughter coming to visit who thinks mom is still rich and the woman is distraught at the thought of her daughter finding out she is poor and her marriage prospects going down the drain. The rose brings Happy luck. Starting to sound a wee bit familiar now doesn’t it? He locates Lucky but during a shootout by a rival gang Lucky loses his ability to move or talk but the gang thinks he has appointed Happy as his successor. And if you have seen the Chan film you know the rest – with the deviation being that the daughter is none other than Sonia. I missed Anita Mui. Very funny on an idiot level and a big hit in India.
Rating: 7.5/10
