What Made \'Dabangg 2\' a Hit

Altaf Qdri/Associated Press Actor Salman Khan attending a promotional event for his movie “Dabangg 2,” in New Delhi, in this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo.

The action-comedy “Dabangg 2,” starring Salman Khan, has surpassed the 2 billion-rupee ($40.9 million) mark to become the third highest-grossing Bollywood production ever.

But India’s professional film critics completely missed the attraction.

“Dabangg 2” sees Mr. Khan reprising his role as Chulbul Pandey, a police officer in Uttar Pradesh who styles himself after Robin Hood, robbing from the bad guys to help the needy. Pandey tangles with a local goon, Bchcha Bhaiyya, played by the south Indian star Prakash Raj. Bhaiyya ends up causing Pandey’s wife to miscarry, driving Pandey into a rage-fueled quest for revenge.

Although the first “Dabangg” grossed 2.2 billion rupees within two weeks of its release in September 2010, film critics had low expectations for the sequel, which they roundly panned.

“It is pointless to analyze ‘Dabanng 2’ as pure cinema,” Sudhish Kamath said in his review of the film for The Hindu newspaper. “Because it’s not. It’s bhai-porn for the guys who work overtime at the gym,” he said, using the Hindi word for “brother. “It’s futile to dissect the screenplay. Because there is none. All lines are just variations of ‘I can beat you up/Don’t mess with me.’ ”

Sanjukta Sharma, features editor at Mint, called the movie a “disappointment.” “It had nothing to keep me engaged,” she said in her review.

If the success of “Dabangg 2” has confounded the critics, they can agree on one thing: “Dabangg 2” is Salman Khan and Salman Khan is “Dabangg 2.” If the movie has succeeded, they say, it’s only because of the actor’s sheer star power.

Though the film critic Anupama Chopra generally trashed the sequel, she called Mr. Khan’s character “a superhero without a cape.” Her plea: Can someone please write a terrific plot for this terrific character

Nandini Ramnath, a film journalist at Mint, said any film in which Mr. Khan stars is bound to be a hit. “Salman Khan represents a superheroic unreconstructed Indian male - the romantic and monogamous, duty-bound and dutiful, fearless and brave, old-fashioned yet forward-looking man,” she said.

Mr. Khan’s last five releases have collectively exceeded 1 trillion rupees at thebox office, but his popularity didn’t explode until the release of “Dabanng.” Before the movie, Mr. Khan had been largely seen as the actor for the unsophisticated masses, whose target audience and fans would reside in smaller towns and villages, while the other two members of Bollywood’s Khan trio â€" Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan â€" had fans who flocked to multiplexes in the cities.

“ ‘Dabangg’ changed everything,” said Shohini Ghosh, professor of film studies at Jamia Millia Islamia. “An action-comedy set in the rural badlands, ‘Dabangg’ was not only a sensational hit in Salman’s traditional fan base, but also captured the imagination of the urban middle-classes, who were prone to deride Salman-starrers as lacking class and taste.”

According to Ms. Ramnath, it was the movie’s “comic-book storytelling style and ironic, self-parodying tone of the film” that made it a hit.

Mr. Khan’s stardom first gained momentum during the 1990s as Muslim viewer! s in Indi! a, feeling marginalized by the Hindu majority, identified with the Muslim actor, said Professor Ghosh.

“The entire decade of the 1990s, and a large part of the next, witnessed a heightened communalization of public spaces as Hindu right forces consolidated political power following the demolition of Babri Masjid,” she said. “Muslims were cast as unreliable citizens whose loyalties were perpetually in doubt. The anxiety suffered by the ordinary Muslim â€" who could be randomly targeted for interrogation, torture and incarceration merely on the basis of suspicion â€" found reflection, as it were, in the unpredictable vicissitudes that beset Salman Khan.”

Mr. Khan’s legal troubles included charges that he hunted protected blackbucks and that he drove recklessly in an accident that killed a sleeping pavement dweller. He was never convicted, which may have appealed to underprivileged Muslims who felt they were being unfairly targeted by the justice system, said Ms. Ghosh.

Mr. Khan’slater films, like “Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge” and “Garv,” began emphasizing harmony between Muslims and Hindus, which Professor Ghosh said broadened Mr. Khan’s appeal among Indian viewers.

Even though the success of “Dabangg 2” has cemented Mr. Khan’s box office power, critics are still slow to get on the Khan bandwagon.

“There won’t be a sensible Salman Khan film,” says the film critic Rajeev Masand. “He doesn’t see merit in a story or the depth in its characters. In both ‘Dabanggs,’ at least he has a wholesome character.”