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Salman’s accent is pitch-perfect. And that’s where the performance begins. While the actor takes himself dead seriously, the film is remarkably light-hearted and free-spirited even though the underlying message – sometimes to be a true hero you’ve got to fall hard on the ground before you pick yourself up again – is never squandered in the outward frivolity that grips the narrative as, for long stretches, Salman plays the super-smitten lover-boy who can’t get enough of Aarfa ( Anushka Sharma) .
Though their scenes of courtship and romance are unnecessarily stretched out and over cute, the pair works largely because Anushka is the first Salman co-star who doesn’t seem overwhelmed by his presence. Yup, she gives him tit for tat with such nifty nonchalance that we are soon rooting for them as a couple.
This is a funny engaging and satisfying film brimming with many moments of joie de vivre. The wrestling sequences, done with a choreographic candour, are outstanding. Salman slams his opponents with such intensity that you wonder if the ricocheting ruckus in the wrestling ring is a metaphor for what this film is sure to do at the box office.
All said and done, “Sultan” is a love story first, then a sports film. Director Ali Abbas Zafar doesn’t distil the drama with interpolations. Though lengthy, the characters never lose their plot. They are written into a tightly edited pastiche of pain and pleasure unleashed with honesty and charm.
The film is shot by Artur Zurawski with