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Sultan review: Salman Khan’s Sultan is out and his massive fan base is in frenzy. Indubitably, Bhai has a knack of galvanising his support base and send them marching into the theatres as if by remote control – Salman of course, would like to use the word ‘love’ instead of the more mechanical sounding moniker. However, that is one aspect of Salman Khan and his moviedom success. The other world is that of the critics – how they interpreted it and what kind of a rating they gave it in their movie reviews. We take a few top ones and present them to you without muscling, sexing them up or in any way interfering with the critics train of thought. So from the Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta to DNA’s Sarita A Tanwar, check them all out: (Yash Raj Films photo)
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Sultan review by Shubhra Gupta – ***: “And win it he does. ‘Sultan’ has him breaking free from Bhai-giri bondage by getting his character to crack and bleed. His down-and-out wrestler has foibles, is fallible, is human. Sultan Ali Khan has faults, and is punished for it. Because of which Sultan scores, and delivers a solid entertainer with heft.” And “Director Ali Abbas Zafar surprises us by keeping the slack moments mostly at bay in this 170-minutes enterprise. Some lines are distinctly populist, but spry enough to make you crack up: Hooda has a lovely one about ‘asli Jats’.” (Yash Raj Films photo)
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Sultan review by Namrata Joshi in The Hindu: “Sultan (or for that matter any other Bhai film) has to be seen as independently of his crazy fans and their riotous reactions at Galaxy as of his infamous “rape” remarks. So let me stick my neck out and say that the Haryanvi and the Haryana in the film are cringingly irritating. Just a month back there was the much reviled Laal Rang, starring Hooda that got the rough and rustic lingo and earthy humour spot on. Here the accent itself becomes a joke. A juvenile, inane one at that. Saying “yo sai (it is)”, sory for sorry and test for taste doesn’t make things authentically Haryanvi but wildly witty for the fans it seems.” (Yash Raj Films photo)
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Sultan review by Rohit Vats in The Hindustan Times – ***: “Director Abbas Ali Zafar’s biggest success lies in taming Salman’s overpowering persona. Zafar further breaks the film into three distinct acts, and the actor excels in each of them. From playing a done-and-dusted homegrown wrestler to a wonder-boy of freestyle fighting, you see Salman put up a performance like never before. The director’s uncontrollable urge to make his characters break into a jig every now and then slows down the film. The songs consume time, and act as mere advertisements of Salman’s superstardom. However, that’s also Sultan’s USP.” (Bollywood Hungama)
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Sultan review by Srijana Mitra Das in The Times of India – ***1/2: “Salman gives a fighting performance, his character graph moving plausibly from a cheery, everyday “loojer” to a determined athlete, an arrogant star, a crushed, depressed, lonely guy. Anushka plays her familiar feisty girl, with a rustic twang and self-control, but fairly little change.” (Bollywood Hungama)
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Sultan review by Sarita A Tanwar in DNA – ****: “Ali Abbas Zafar is in fantastic form with Sultan – this is how mainstream, commercial films should be made. The film has wrestling as its backdrop but it never overpowers the emotional aspect of the lead protagonists. That’s the beauty of Sultan’s screenplay. The film progresses at a leisurely pace as Ali lets the audience invest emotionally into his characters. After that, the brilliantly choreographed action sequences become the bonus. At the core, Sultan is a love story and that’s where it succeeds all the way.” (bollywood Hungama)
