Cast: Gulzar Inder Chahal, Puneet Issar, Brooke Johnston, Rizwan Haider, Amy Rasimas
Director: Puneet Issar
A good film needs a powerful central theme and a skilled storyteller who can build the conflict around that theme. 'I Am Singh' is based on the theme of racial discrimination but the message against hate crimes is missing till the climax.
Ranveer Singh (Gulzar Inder Chahal) is a Punjab based successful businessman whose brothers live in America. One day he receives a call from America about the death of one of his brothers. Ranveer reaches the US only to find out that the local police have arrested his other brother for the murder.
Ranveer's sixth sense keeps telling him that there is something deliberately hidden. A little investigation takes Ranveer to Pakistani Rizwan Haider (Rizwan Haider) who reveals that Ranveer’s brothers have been the victims of hate crimes.
Some of the local police officials are on the racists' side and want to shut the case but Ranveer is determined to take up his cause to the higher authorities.
Fateh Singh (Puneet Issar), an ex LAPD officer, joins Ranveer in his battle for justice and brings the case to the notice of a beautiful attorney and human rights activist Amelia White (Brooke Johnston). Together they file a petition in the American court and the ultimate struggle for citizen rights begins.
The story is highly confused about the chief theme. The actors are confused about their character's motives; leave aside the purpose of the film. The unidirectional story does not give any jolt and wherever it tries to shock, bad acting spoils it all.
The story is devoid of any proper characterisation. One can take morally upright Ranveer Singh as a given but it's really difficult to digest Fateh Singh's preaching all the time, that too without any apparent reason.
Further that director is obsessed with his own screen presence. Puneet Issar's as Fateh Singh reminds you of Manoj Kumar and his antics. Knowingly or unknowingly, he starts to jostle with Gulzar Chahal to become the last man standing.
The evident hero leaves the space for Issar to excel in the climax.
There is no harm in using flashbacks to open a film but the makers need to be absolutely clear about the importance of the opening sequence. Using flashback just because the writer can't think of any other way determines the fate of the film. 'I Am Singh' seems to be an amalgamation of stereotypes.
Except first fifteen minutes, Issar loses his grip over the film. He has not given proper commands to the cinematographer who appears to be too obsessed with 'Sunny Deol kind' of close up shots.
There is one well shot fight sequence in the beginning but it's so prolonged that the viewer would like to see the actors killed as soon as possible.
Stereotyping prevails in the scenes featuring racial discrimination. All the hate criminals have green eyes and shaven heads. Those who don't have either of these, sport black shades.
Conscious effort to give all the characters sufficient space to move around looks bizarre in long shots where actors don't move more than two steps to avoid collision.
A lot of time is wasted in giving the background information of the Sikhs. References from religious texts continue to grab the screen for good five minutes even in the climax. A lot of stress has been put on reinstating the Sikhs as a warrior clan which affects the original story of a struggling Sikh family.
The problem of racial discrimination has been diagnosed superficially. 'I Am Singh' is nowhere close to films such as 'American History X' and 'This Is England' despite being 'inspired' from them.
Puneet Issar fails to control the abrupt transition of the story from a common Sikh's plight to a zingoistic saga.
Songs don't work on the same platform as rest of the story. Songs excel simply because there is nothing else to look keenly at.
The makers have not shown any sensibility in handling a serious topic like racial discrimination. It appears that the director uses the 'problem' as a justification a confused film rather than posing a grave question and finding an answer.
Uselessly stretched climax brings out the solution of the 'original' problem. It's a different thing that rest of the film seems to be about some other problem.
Despite repeated attempts of glorifying Sikh history; 'I Am Singh' does not manage anything more than making it a light hearted thing.
This film is not expected to give any considerable contribution to relevant debate about racial discrimination simply because it has tried to incorporate each and every problem related to the South Asian community in America in the post 9/11 era.
Go with zero expectations and enjoy Daler Mehndi's 'Bhangra', only if you have the stamina to remain sane till the song.
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