What To Expect In A Rohit Shetty Film

Rohit Shetty doesn't have a single simple bone in his body. His films are extravagant explosions that aspire for little sense and big business.

Sparing no expense or effort to entertain his audience has mostly reaped in rich dividends for Bollywood's King of Masala.

With his Diwali offering Singham Again, the director's homegrown cop universe, which reunites his khaki-clad daredevils -- Singham, Simmba, Sooryavanshi -- the man hopes to unlock new levels of action-packed spectacle led by a star-studded cast of Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Tiger Shroff, Arjun Kapoor and, if the rumours are to be believed, Salman Khan in a Chulbul Pandey-sized cameo.

Sukanya Verma lists everything you can expect from the Rohit Shetty brand of film-making.

Crowd Pleaser

You'll rarely spot a lonesome figure in his movies.

Rohit Shetty is all for more the merrier and loves to fill his frames with actors as different as cheese and chalk.

Ensemble cast is his thing and if there's one film he'll probably never remake is Sunil Dutt's Yaadein.

Lights, camera, colours

The world how Rohit Shetty sees it is, at least, four times brighter and over-saturated than our mortal eyes can handle. There should be special glasses to survive such extreme fluorescent splash.

Over the top action

Somersaulting vehicles, flying cars, exploding jeeps, actors balancing themselves on bikes and other modes of transport only to leap on to hovering helicopters, these are commonplace sights in a Rohit Shetty creation.

Slapstick humour

Possessed Deepika Padukone, Johnny Lever in Veerappan mode, Abhishek Bachchan's three mothers, Shreyas Talpade unleashing his inner Nana Patekar, Kunal Kemmu taking a spin inside a washing machine or Irrfan's Raavan imagery, Rohit Shetty's gags make their presence felt loud and clear.

Laughing at another's expense

Lowbrow wit is another favourite of this film-maker. Jokes about disabilities, parodying films that centred around it, homophobic jibes and cross dressing shenanigans find much favour in his brand of entertainment, entertainment, entertainment.

The usual suspects

Believe it or faint, but Christopher Nolan and Rohit Shetty do have one thing in common. They love to repeat a bunch of actors.

Apart from the most obvious name on the list, Ajay Devgn, you'll notice the likes of Mukesh Tiwari, Ashwini Kalsekar, Vrajesh Hirjee alongside Sanjay Mishra and Johnny Lever featuring in nearly everything made by the director.

Larger than life

As summarised in my Golmaal Again review, 'Overkill is Shetty's thing. The director stuffs the screen with props, people and puerile energy to orchestrate his comedy of crackpots.'

Big star collaborations, exaggerated responses, action, comedy and romance bordering on fantasy, suspension of disbelief and spectacle go hand in hand in a Rohit Shetty film.

This feature was first published on December 20, 2022.