Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Om Puri, Sonu Sood, Javed Jafferi, Ranvir Shorey

Director: Anees Bazmi

Whatever else it notches up, ‘Singh Is Kinng’ will always and forever be known as the first Hindi film in Punjabi : everyone talks as if sarson da saag is coming out of their mouths.

Oye, gal sun. Happy Singh (Akshay) is packed off from his village, with his middle-aged pal (Om Puri) in tow, to Australia. (Note: Bollywood’s denizens do not go to Sydney, Melbourne and so on ; they just to go to Australia). Their mission : to fetch a certain Lucky Singh (Sonu) back to the pind. This Lucky, oye, he’s this master-criminal who lives in a gilded palace with a bunch of goons, surrounded by a lake, which can only be reached by a motorboat.

But before Lucky and friend land in Australia, they take a detour to Egypt. Oye, aise kaise? Eddan. (that immortal phrase, in case you didn’t know, means like that only). But that’s what is called a rhetorical question. Anees Bazmi and Vipul Shah, director and producer, are showing us the sights of Egypt (not Cairo; Egypt, okay?), while getting Akshay and Katrina to dance right in front of the pyramids.

There must have been a script when they started out (you hope), but within a few minutes, you know that the trio of the superhit ‘Namaste London ‘(Shah, Akki, and Kat) have come together again to do a repeat. Get ol’ Akki to do the bumbling, good-hearted village bumpkin, Kat to do her feisty cockney-accented leggy lass, and Shah to do his mera bharat mahaan act, designed to bring a lump to the throat, and bingo, Singh will be King.

... contd.