SULTAN Box Office / Reviews - Page 40

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Salman Khan's movie Sultan released in theatres on Wednesday, July 6, and has met with an unprecedented response. Sultan is being seen as one of the best movies ever of Salman Khan and fans can't get enough of him! While India.com has given rating of 3.5 out of 5 to Sultan in its balanced review, there are some critics who have given it an equal number of stars or even 4 stars out of five. Let's take a look at some of the movie reviews of Sultan by renowned film critics. Read on!

Anupama Chopra, film critic, anchor, author and the wife of filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, always gives honest reviews. And she was all praise for Sultan. She said, "Sultan speaks to the colossal screen strength of Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma matches him at every step." Her video review of Sultan for Film Companion is also out. Take a look at it here:

Acclaimed film writer Nandini Ramnath has reviewed Sultan for Scroll. She says, "Sustained by the leading man's magnetic pull, nicely cast supporting actors (Anant Sharma is especially good as Sultan's sidekick Govind), a welcome lack of melodrama, and a setting that looks less plastic than the average A-list movie, Sultan is the apogee of the Salman Khan cult. It's the second Yash Raj Films production in the year after the Shah Khan Khan starrer Fan whose metaphorical possibilities are far more interesting than the plot itself. Although its brawny lead actor makes a winning effort to play a fictional person rather than himself, Salman Khan is Sultan Ali Khan and Sultan Ali Khan is Salman Khan."

Ramnath bases her review on the point that Sultan is about the real life Salman Khan. "Sultan is billed as fiction but at its heart, it's really a biopic of Salman Khan, the dark star who has now attained supernova status," she says in her review. (ALSO READ: Sultan first movie review: Salman Khan's movie gets 5-star rating overseas!)

Sarita Tanwar of our sister concern DNA gives a 4-star rating to Sultan, calling it Salman Khan's career best performance. She says, "A story that will touch your heart, performances that are stellar and drama that's worthy of the big screen hysteria. That's the best way to summarise Ali Abbas Zafar's Sultan." She also tweeted:

Entertainment website Bollywood Hungama, one of the few who have given a 4.5 star rating to Sultan, says in its movie review, "It is a Salman Khan movie all the way! From his body language to his Haryanvi accent, from a famous wrestler to a helpless man who is struggling to get his life together, Salman's role as Sultan Ali Khan is in wrestling language - dhobi pachad'. From his power packed entry to his love for Aarfa, your heart will beat and pray for Sultan. Salman has also worked very hard on his physique and the action scenes look great. Anushka Sharma, who has already showcased an action-packed side of hers in NH10, continues to win hearts as Aarfa too. Not only has she been able to match up to Salman's powerful performance, her presence as Aarfa even in the background leaves an impact."

Ananya Bhattacharya of India Today says, "Salman Khan's hard work is more than visible in every frame... From the dhobi-pachhads to slamming his opponents on the ground, this desi pehelwan uses technique to flatten anyone who crosses him in the ring. And the viewer. Wolf-whistles and claps greet every minute of Salman's time in the pit. In the akhada, Sultan is the man to watch out for. Anushka Sharma's Aarfa is the result of months of training, and the actor nails it."

#Sultan 3.5/5. Haryanvi English that @BeingSalmanKhan speaks is a rocker & dance movements in the song Jag Ghoomeya terrific.

#Sultan 3.5/5.#AliAbbasZafar in his 3rd film as director has proved he has the stuff, dialogues by #AdityaChopra r really good.Well packaged

Yash Raj Films' Salman Khan-starrer Sultan, which released in over 4,000 screens, took a gigantic 80-per cent opening during the morning shows today. The audience loves the film and multiplex programmers believe that all shows will run housefull from this evening till the end of the weekend. Over to them:

Amar Laykar, PVR

The film opened with 80-per cent occupancy and the response so far is very good. The matinee shows will see even greater occupancy. The response is outstanding and footfalls will increase. Shows will run packed till the weekend.

Ashok Kavthamkar, Carnival Cinemas

Given Salman Khan's track record, expectations from Sultan were very high. Without a doubt, Salman is back with another bumper film inSultan, which is entertaining and also a very good film. We are expecting huge collections from this movie.

Prem Lakhani, Rajhans

Salman Khan is a hero of the masses and Sultan is his eidi for his audience. The film took a bumper opening at our multiplex and every show is 90-per cent full. Bookings were mainly done through advance booking. Since the response is brilliant, we are expecting packed cinemas till the weekend.

Gaurav Ruparel, City Pulse

Advance booking opened on Sunday and the morning shows opened with 80-per cent occupancy. Since the second show, most screens have been housefull.

Gandharv Sharma, Red Rocks

Salman Khan has his loyal fans and he has fans across age groups. Moreover, Sultan is a film for the masses. It is very entertaining as well as emotional. It will definitely break many records.

Avinash Kumar Singh, APR

Eid belongs to Salman Khan, and he has proved this with Sultan, once again. The response to this film is outstanding and the film opened with 80-per cent occupancy. Every show has been packed to capacity since the second show.

Sunil Gholap, Movie Time
We have been running shows with 90-per cent occupancy show across all our properties. Eid is tomorrow so expect Salman Khan's Eid audience to come in from tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Sultan film is an outstanding film, which means it will definitely break records.

Sailesh Joshi, City Pride

A few of our properties are running house-full shows and some witnessed 90-per cent occupancy. Salman Khan's fans are very loyal, especially when he does a good film and Sultan's audience review is very positive.

Mitti mein tera khoon

Khoon mein tere mitti

Mitti mein tera khoon

Upar Allah

Neeche dharti

Beech mein tera junoon

Re Sultan

(Tune: Vishal-Shekhar, Words: Irshad Kamil, Voices: Sukhwinder Singh, Shadab Faridi)

These lyrics from Sultan's title track exemplify what makes this film tick: the director's ability and unabashed willingness to tug at the heart strings - tap into every available emotion in the viewer, our patriotic pride, our soft spot for the underdog - yet not overplay its hand.

Despite its bow to a number of formulae, in many other ways this is an unusual Bollywood offering.

It is, for instance, that uncommon Hindi film in which the hero offers an unqualified apology to the heroine. Rub your eyes in disbelief all you wish, but it is true: from an industry that usually derides women who do not unblinkingly forgive every manner of male transgression because after all it is "ek hi bhool" (just one mistake; read: not a big deal), this too has now happened.

From an industry that avoids giving us protagonists from minority communities without making their religion and socio-cultural milieu a focal point of the plot, where followers of Islam are usually present with the specific - no doubt, often noble - purpose of depicting political tensions or spreading a message of communal amity (sometimes to good effect, as with Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and sometimes in an exasperatingly trite fashion), where minorities almost never just happen to be because they happen to be, this here is a film where both central characters are Muslims, they have many Hindu associates and friends, yet after a point one barely notices.

Not a single shot of a temple is seen nor a single call of the muezzin heard nor a single speech delivered to drive home a point, thus reminding us gently without drumbeats and trumpet sounds that minority communities need not be mere narrative devices, that majority-minority associations happen routinely without blaring announcements and that a lesson on secularism need not be stated in black and white to be heard.

These are important asides in Ali Abbas Zafar's Sultan, the story of a wrestler who quits the sport after a personal tragedy, but returns to it for the very reason he left. Sultan Ali Khan (Salman Khan) is a popular but aimless young man in a Haryana village who helps his father run his cable TV business. One day when he sees local girl Aarfa Hussein (Anushka Sharma), who is the state wrestling champion, it is, as is often the case in Hindi films, love at first sight for him. Sultan takes up wrestling to impress her and ends up excelling. Aarfa too succumbs to his charms, but they split up not long after and Sultan retires from the arena. His return and his motivation to do so are what this film is about.

Sultan has a fair share of follies. The male lead's immaturity is believable, but it is disappointing to see the lack of inventiveness employed in writing the early stages of the Sultan-Aarfa romance: boy' sees girl, boy' falls for girl, boy' chases girl, girl shows irritation but then they become friends and she falls in love.

What makes the courtship truly seem silly is that the boy' - a mere 30 in the first half of the film - is played by a 50-year-old star. Khan stopped looking 30 about 21 years back. The casting of a 28-year-old actress as his lover merely emphasises this point. Why, dear Bollywood, cannot 50-year-old men play 50-year-old men?

The couple's earliest encounters are the least imaginative, most troublesome part of this film. Remember the unlettered Kalidas who, according to folklore, was driven to educate himself by the insults of his bride, and went on to become the legendary author we know? That story has been retold repeatedly down the decades in Hindi cinema, and carried over into a conviction that women do not reject the advances of men politely but always with taunts; and that there is no greater force than a woman's contempt to drive a man to great heights.

Despite these flaws and several clichs, Sultan has an emotional core that is hard to resist. Writer-director Zafar is clever in the way he uses his actors, the innate poignancy of his story and Vishal-Shekhar's songs to create a moving whole. Even when Jag ghoomeya is abruptly and awkwardly inserted into the narrative, the tune and words do not lose their appeal. And the very well choreographed MMA (mixed martial arts) scenes in the second half are spot on.

Since Zafar seems socially well intentioned, perhaps he might consider that at least a passing mention of the A-word (read: abortion) in the story would have given it more credibility at a particular crucial turning point. Elsewhere, Aarfa tells Sultan: Your society does not realise "beti maaroge toh bahu kaha se laaoge?" (If you kill your daughters, where will you find brides?) This is a line taken even by some women's rights activists in discussions on female foeticide. Could everyone please note that baby girls have a right to be born because they have a right to be born, and not because they will serve a purpose in the lives of men as wives and mothers. That being said, quite unexpectedly for a Salman Khan film, Sultan has some interesting feminist elements that do not come across as being contrived to impress.

Hats off to Zafar for that and more. Hats off to Khan too for many reasons. Whatever be his acting weaknesses, he is clearly not insecure. This is a star who has the confidence to share screen space with far superior performers - Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Kick, Siddiqui in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Anushka Sharma and the wonderful supporting cast here in Sultan.

No scene in the film better illustrates the contrast than the one in which Aarfa informs Sultan about a calamity that has struck both their lives. To watch this scene is to witness Khan struggle to summon up expressions on his face while Sharma, wonderful Sharma, is clearly living the moment. Still, this is that rare film in which Khan does not play to the gallery by talking directly to his fans throughout. Equally to the point, despite his acting limitations and the manner in which he swallows many of the dialogues here, it is to his credit that he appears to have submitted to his director in this film, that there is more to his performance than the remarkable work he has put into building his body to suit the role of a wrestler, and Zafar has managed to get the best that any director has got out of him so far.

None of this would have worked though if it were not for the manner in which the narrative is stirring when you are least expecting it. That song quoted at the start of this review translates thus into English:

The soil (of the akhara and the motherland) is in your blood

Your blood is in the soil

The Lord above

The Earth below

And between them your spirit

O Sultan.