Sultan Movie Review by Sputnik

Sultan Synopsis
Sultan is a story of Sultan Ali Khan – a local wrestling champion with the world at his feet as he dreams of representing India at the Olympics. It’s a story of Aarfa – a feisty young girl from the same small town as Sultan with her own set of dreams. When the 2 local wrestling legends lock horns, romance blossoms and their dreams and aspirations become intertwined and aligned. However, the path to glory is a rocky one and one must fall several times before one stands victorious – More often than not, this journey can take a lifetime. Sultan is a classic underdog tale about a wrestlers journey, looking for a comeback by defeating all odds staked up against him. But when he has nothing to lose and everything to gain in this fight for his life match… Sultan must literally fight for his life. Sultan believes he’s got what it takes… but this time, it’s gona take everything he’s got. “Wrestling is not a sport it’s about fighting what lies within”….. SULTAN

The comic scene involving “Shit guy” is funny. Some scenes are good like Sultan’s wrestling scenes in the first half. The scene where Sultan proves that he can still fight is very good. The training montage scenes are good. The best scene of the movie is the scene where he looks at himself in the mirror and then wears his shirt back while crying.

The whole plot of Aarfa being mad at Sultan for their son’s loss is ridiculous and forced. Sultan becoming arrogant doesn’t add anything to the plot and feels forced too. Aarfa’s character starts off as a woman who wants to wrestle at Olympics and win a medal but then her character gets completely sidelined in the second half. She is shown teaching wrestling instead of trying to win that medal at Olympics. The second half of the movie reminds of the movie Brothers as there was a similar fighting league plot and even Salman’s character of underdog feels similar to Akshay’s character in the movie.

The songs Jag Ghoomeya is the best song of the movie and is nicely picturized. The songs Baby Ko Bass Pasand Hai, 440 Volt and Sultan title song are good too.

Salman Khan is very good as Sultan. Its nice to see him play an underdog – a down and out wrestler. Anushka Sharma is good as Aarfa but is sidelined later on. Kumud Mishra is very good as Aarfa’s father. Amit Sadh is in a useless role. Randeep Hooda is ok in a small role as coach.

Ali Abbas Zafar’s direction is good in the first half of the movie. The first half of the movie is entertaining but the second half is bad and tedious. The movie also feels cliched with some corny and cheesy scenes. The movie is way too long and it should have been at least 30 minutes short. Overall its an average movie with a very good performance from Salman.

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15 Comments
  1. FS 8 years ago

    I didn’t find a single scene or situation forced other than couple of songs. Everything was on par & as a necessity. Yes, it was predictable & cliched – so are some of the best movies of all time, either hollywood or bollywood.

    • Author
      sputnik 8 years ago

      I didn’t mind the songs but like I said I did not like the 2nd half. It felt like rewatching Brothers with the MMA style fighting competition. Agree that sports movies are cliched but they should have avoided the MMA competition and stuck to wrestling instead. It would have made more sense if sultan blamed himself for his son’s death and started losing fights and so on rather than Aarfa separating from him. Also how come he lost all the money that he must have earned after winning competitions and all those endorsements?

      • FS 8 years ago

        Did they shown how much money he earned? In reality some of Olympic gold medalist is selling golgappe on footpath to survive.

        Secondly he did blame himself hence left the wrestling and as anuahka said in the end, maa ghaav gehra hota hai.

        Arrogance do take over but from wrestlers point of view it was his comfidence as well that got to him where he was and what he wanted.

        Salman was a perfect candidate for wrestler and this movie touches the right chord.

        I have always observed that most of the Srk & Amitab fans never give credit where its due especially towards Salman or Akshay Movies & some times even Hrithiks.

        Sometimes they don’t even hesitate to go gaga over & over.

        • FS 8 years ago

          gaga over Aamir

          • Author
            sputnik 8 years ago

            You can edit your comment anytime by going to the top right corner of your comment below the line. You will see 3 dots and you can click on it and then select Edit and then edit your comment.

        • Author
          sputnik 8 years ago

          I think you are referring to this.

          “After doing India proud by winning two bronze medals at the 2011 Athens special Olympics, Sita Sahu, a mentally challenged teenager from Rewa, today helps her mother sell ‘gol gappas’ in a ghetto settlement. ”

          She is mentally challenged and she won medals in special Olympics.

          https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Olympics-medal-winner-now-a-gol-gappa-seller/articleshow/19469399.cms

          If you look at male wrestlers like Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt they are doing perfectly fine.

          I don’t know why you are bringing what SRK and Amitabh fans do with respect to other stars movies. That’s what all fans do when reacting to other stars movies. They praise their favorite star’s movies and downplay other stars movies and performances.

          I already said Salman was very good in the movie. Actually its his performance that made the 2nd half watchable. Its the similarity with 2nd half of Brothers and the predictability that hurt the movie. I did not like Brothers either.

          I loved Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Salman’s performance in it. I think it is his best movie and best performance so far. I don’t think Sultan is in the same league. I loved Salman’s performance and Dabangg too which some Salman fans did not like much.

          I did not like Fan either which SRK fans were praising so much.

          • FS 8 years ago

            Read this below from the few,

            https://m.indiatoday.in/story/forgotten-and-ignored-sports-heroes-who-did-india-proud-left-to-fend-for-their-livelihood/1/253398.html

            There are many such sport stars living under poverty & media do broadcast any one of such personality from time to time.

            Its not about what you like but why you didnt like. You are reasoning that MMA spoiled second half but tell me how much screen time did they actually use for MMA fights? & why wouldn’t it be MMA? Shouldn’t it be repeated again?

            I wanted to make a post on my observations from past 6-7 years i spent online blogging, debating with various fans & bloggers keeping Salman at a focal
            Point, Insha Allah i’ll do that soon.

          • Author
            sputnik 8 years ago

            Everyone in that link won back in the 50s/60s/70s. Stories of even old actors living in poverty come in news from time to time.

            Sultan wins at the following wrestling competitions in the movie.
            Commonwealth Games 2010
            Asian Games 2010
            United World Wrestling 2011
            London Olympics 2012

            Sushil Kumar who is also from Haryana won gold medal at 2010 World Wrestling Championships and won silver medal at 2012 London Olympics.

            This is what Sushil Kumar got according to wikipedia.

            —————

            For the gold medal at 2010 World Wrestling Championships

            ₹1 million (US$15,000) cash award from Indian Railways (his employer) & out-of-turn promotion from his current position of Asst. Commercial Manager.
            ₹1 million (US$15,000) cash award from Sports Authority of India, (Government of India).
            ₹1 million (US$15,000) cash award from the Delhi Government

            For the silver medal at 2012 London Olympics
            ₹20 million (US$300,000) cash reward from the Delhi Government
            ₹15 million (US$220,000) cash reward from the Haryana Government
            ₹07.5 million (US$110,000) cash reward from the Indian Railway
            Land area in Sonipat for Wrestling academy by the Haryana Government.
            ₹1 million (US$15,000) cash award from ONGC.

            Kumar endorses brands such as Mountain Dew, Eicher tractors, and the National Egg Coordination Committee which earns him ₹10 million (US$150,000) annually.”

            ————–

            So he makes 1 Crore annually from endorsements. And I think Sultan wins Gold medal at Olympics if I remember correctly. So he would have got even more money from all those people.

            There is no way that someone who made so much money will be in the position that Sultan is in the movie struggling to open a blood bank unless he lost all his money by drinking/gambling or something like that. That is why the whole plot point of blood bank is forced. Also the separation plot is forced because I don’t think any sport star’s wife will be mad at her husband because he was trying to win a medal at the London Olympics instead of being with her during childbirth.

            ———–

            There is no MMA league in India. Brothers was a official remake of Warrior and they used the same MMA league plot and tried to show it as new league that has been started in India. In Brothers the whole commentary and popularity all seemed so fake.

            Here they did the same thing with the MMA league that it is struggling initially and then it becomes popular after they introduce a Indian wrestler. I think the commentary was comparatively better here than in Brothers though.

            But still after having watched Brothers just last year where is the novelty? In that too Akshay Kumar’s character gets thrashed for the whole match but finally wins. Same thing happens here with Sultan. The climax is all MMA with three fights almost back to back. It was similar in Brothers.

            I think Sultan making a comeback at the 2016 Olympics in wrestling would have made for a better story than him winning at that silly MMA tournament. It would have made the movie more original and not look like a copy of Brothers.

            ————————-

            “I wanted to make a post on my observations from past 6-7 years i spent online blogging, debating with various fans & bloggers keeping Salman at a focal Point, Insha Allah i’ll do that soon.”

            Looking forward to your post since you haven’t made a post in a long time.

  2. Author
    sputnik 8 years ago

  3. Author
    sputnik 8 years ago

    I forgot to mention this in my review. The plot of Aarfa blaming Sultan for their son’s loss and separating from him is straight out of Wazir.

    In that Farhan Akhtar’s character has his daughter in his car and is waiting for his wife to return from a shop but then decides to follow these goons. His daughter dies when the goons fire at him. Aditi Rao Hydari’s character blames him for his daughter’s death and separates from him. Farhan Akhtar keeps trying to be back with her. In that Aditi Rao Hydari’s character blaming Farhan’s character was completely understandable as he did put his daughter’s life in danger with his reckless action.

    • cr7 8 years ago

      The broken circle breakdown has a similar plot . But way more deep and depressing .

      • Author
        sputnik 8 years ago

        Never heard of it before. Will check it out.

        Now that I think it of it even Talaash had a similar plot where Aamir blames himself for his son’s death.

        • cr7 8 years ago

          I think it happens .Not necessarily there’ll always be logic behind it . Losing a child is traumatic .

          • Author
            sputnik 8 years ago

            Agree but people find it relatively easier to move on in case of a still birth/miscarriage or death as a newborn. Its much harder when the child has lived for a few months because the attachment has formed.

          • cr7 8 years ago

            Agreed .

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