Sangram Bhalerao (Ranveer Singh) is a corrupt cop. You see, he was an orphan. There was no one to teach him right or wrong. ‘Pet paalne ke liye’ paisa chahiye. There is a justification for why our hero turned out bad. He is also one of the most annoying characters I have seen in recent times.
Then there is Shagun (Sara Ali Khan). She talks sweetly and serves food to the entire police station. She keeps track of which uncle has diabetes and forbids them from having sweets. No wonder our hero falls in love with this Mother India! What does a man look for in a woman after all – the ability to feed him!
Our hero is very jealous of a male friend of Shagun. Shagun barely knows him, and it seems she has known her male friend for years. But when our hero objects to her hugging her male friend, she does not find this man creepy, jealous, possessive, and controlling. Instead, she falls in love with him!
Anyway, moving on, since our hero has no conscience, something drastic had to happen for him to change. When he was young, a noble Didi used to teach him at night free of cost. Similarly, there is a kind-hearted young girl in the neighborhood who teaches poor kids. Our hero finds this girl respect worthy and she becomes his chhoti behen. This behen gets gangraped and our hero avenges her death.
The only thing that I agree with in this movie was that rapists should be killed right away. Justice delayed is justice denied. And these beasts should not end up getting away because of money and power. I appreciate this thought. However, there is so much wrong with Simmba:
- Men like Simmba respect a certain type of woman. Someone they consider ‘clean and pure’. Simmba cared about a woman because she became his sister, because she reminded him of the Didi who taught him. Would he have respected a woman in the pub, who drank and smoked and had boyfriends, and wore a mini skirt? Probably not. He would not have been able to relate to her.
2. Simmba helps people once they become his mother, father, sister. Why can’t this adult respect people for just being people? Why do they have to be related to him for him to have compassion for them?
3.In a bizarre scene, Simmba and his troop try to provoke the accused rapists by calling them ‘Naamard’ ‘Napunsak’ and suggest that a fertility test would have proven otherwise. This was extremely shameful and insensitive. Do they realize there are people actually suffering from physical problems and to challenge someone to prove their ‘masculinity’ is not cool?
4.The female judge blames the rapist’s mother. Why? Had the mother asked the sons to rape? Adults cannot take responsibility for their actions? In another stupid scene, the judge wakes up when Simmba tells her what if her daughter got raped? All characters in this movie are so devoid of empathy, sensitivity, and humanity that they cannot feel for another human being unless it is their own family!
Acting wise, this is easily Ranveer’s Singh’s most forgettable performance. An actor of his caliber was wasted. Sara Ali Khan has probably 10-15 minutes of role. I heard someone in the audience say, ‘She is better than Sridevi’s daughter’. In our sad nepotism struck Bollywood, where hero ka beta hero, and heroine ki beti heroine, there is no point having a discussion on talent when it comes to star kids.
Simmba is the flagbearer of toxic masculinity. Just because the topic of women safety is in, does not mean people who have not got their thoughts right can go ahead and attempt their shot at capitalizing on it. While a movie like Pink, tried to address the mentality behind crime against women, Simmba is just a masala movie desperately trying to impose a social message. Except it has no clue, what is the problem in the first place.