Singh Is Bling

About the film

Singh Is Bliing is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Ashvini Yardi under Grazing Goat Pictures, which provided the story and screenplay. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Lara Dutta and Kay Kay Menon. It is a quasi-sequel to the 2008 film Singh Is Kinng. The film was alleged to be plagiarized from My Wife Is a Gangster 3.

Singh Is Bliing was released in global cinemas on 2 October 2015, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti, to mixed reviews from critics. Despite receiving mixed to negative reviews, the film became managed to recover its budget and more at the box office by grossing over ₹135 crores worldwide against a budget of ₹70 crores, with critics praising Kumar's performance. It was one of the highest grossers of the year.

Plot

Raftaar Singh is a nice and fun-loving but uneducated man, with a mischievous and humorous character. He is thrown out of his home by his father who gives him an ultimatum: if he wants to come back, he must get into business with Kirpal Singh in Goa or marry a woman called Sweetie whom he doesn't like. Raftaar chooses the former. Meanwhile, Sara Rana is shown living in Romania with her father, who made bad choices and works for the mafia. Mark, a mafia boss, wants to marry Sara but is rejected by Sara and her father, and shoots Mr Rana in anger. Sara manages to escape to Goa where she hopes to find her estranged mother.

Raftaar meets Kirpal Singh and lies about speaking English in order to get a job taking care of Sara while she is in India. Raftaar and his friends meet Sara at the airport; finding that Sara does not understand Hindi, Raftaar hires a translator, Emily. Sara meets Kirpal and feels safe but presumes Raftaar to be a bad guy. Sara's opinion changes when she sees Raftaar helping a woman who was bothered by a bunch of goons. When these goons later come after Raftaar, they are beaten-up by Sara. Emily is shocked to see that Sara can fight, but Sara warns Emily not to reveal about the incident to Raftaar.

Raftaar's friends and Sara are kidnapped by the same goons; Raftaar tries to save them but gets badly beaten. Sara later fights all the goons away and begins to fall for Raftaar. Kirpal feels happy with Raftaar's performance and soon becomes a successful businessman with his help. Mark learns that Sara is in Goa and sends his men to bring her back. Raftaar and Sara try to flee but their car is hit and Raftaar is beaten-up the boss. He later fights them all except for a woman who is beaten-up by Sara. On Kripal's advice, Raftaar takes Sara to his family home in Punjab.

Production

In early 2014, it was announced that actor Akshay Kumar and director Prabhu Deva would be reuniting for another film after their previous blockbuster, Rowdy Rathore. Soon after, it was confirmed that the film would be titled 'Singh Is Bliing' and was to be produced by Grazing Goat Pictures.

Kumar had also shot some scenes with a lion.

Kumar made it clear that the film was not a sequel to his 2008 film Singh Is Kinng.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album of Singh is Bliing consists of eight songs with an unplugged versions and two remix versions. Sneha Khanwalkar composed only one song titled "Tung Tung Baaje", Sajid–Wajid composed one song titled "Cinema Dekhe Mamma" and Meet Bros also composed one song "Dil Kare Chu Che". Manj Musik composed two tracks "Singh And Kaur", "Mahi Aaja", the remix versions of the two tracks he composed and an unplugged version of the song "Mahi Aaja". Sandeep Shirodkar composed the film score. The lyrics were penned by Sneha Khanwalkar, Manj Musik, Nindy Kaur, Raftaar, Big Dhillon, Wajid, Irfan Kamal and Kumaar. A single from the film "Tung Tung Baaje" was launched digitally on 12 August 2015, and was premiered with another Akshay Kumar-starrer Brothers on 14 August 2015, which is something new for a Bollywood film. The full album was released on 28 August 2015, and received positive reviews from critics. Popular music website Glamsham rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated that "The album does manage to live up to its expectations" and chose "Tung Tung Baaje", "Singh And Kaur" and "Maahi Aaja" as their picks.

Release

Shri Akal Takht Jathedar (the highest member of the Sikh clergy), Giani Gurbachan Singh, objected to scenes in the film's trailer. He said that equating Holy Golden Temple with whisky and chicken is highly objectionable, as were film posters which had Kada with inscribed Gurbani shown with semi-clad women. It was appealed that Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee should be consulted by all film producers before producing movies showing Sikh characters, religious places or religious symbols.

Some Sikh organisations raised objections to scenes of the film which contained Kara used as a weapon and the lead character's turban being set on fire. Central Board of Film Certification decided to delete these scenes from the film. Kumar screened the movie for the organisations to ensure nothing that would hurt the Sikh community was shown.

Critical response

Shubha Shetty Saha from Mid-Day described the comedy as "random and silly", but commented that "it is this randomness that also makes it a breezy, entertaining film". Devesh Sharma from Filmfare wrote that filmgoers should "watch the film if you like cornball comedies". Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express, however, was less receptive to the film, which she rated 1.5 stars of 5, expounding, "The only thing which saves it is that it wears its silliness proudly on its hero's 'pug' (turban)".

Key details