Keep quiet and read what other women have to say - that was one rule many set for themselves as stories of #MeToo were shared online. Why create needless noise when you have nothing substantial to contribute to the debate but much to assimilate, absorb and process from the experiences of others? It is also the rule that one would want to wave at the boys' club behind Simmba - don't try to wear that feminist hat just to capitalise on the mood of the times, it just doesn't fit.

Got to hand it to Rohit Shetty. The complete lack of pretention in Simmba is disarming. The director has built his career on films that demand willing suspension not just of disbelief. This one demands more - a jettisoning of discernment. But how much one warms up to the excesses of an incessantly roaring Simmba will depend wholly on the extent of our willingness to lay down our critical faculties and lap up this championing of vigilantism.

We have come to associate directors with their signature style of filmmaking. Karan Johar is known for his larger-than-life themes, Sanjay Leela Bhansali delivers opulent dramas, Imtiaz Ali has the pulse on modern romances and Aanand L Rai is the master of telling the most ordinary stories, extraordinarily. Similarly Rohit Shetty is known for entertainers, with a lot of action and comedy thrown in the mix.

Simmba (Ranveer Singh) is an orphan from Shivgadh, the native town of brave and honest cop Singham (Ajay Devgn). But Simmba doesn't believe in Singham's ideals. The way he sees it, cops have it easy as everyone gives them a cut. He works hard towards being a cop, gets posted in Shivgadh itself and sets about extorting money from all and sundry.

If you are a serious, intellectual sort, chances are you will judge me for admitting this, but the truth is, I enjoyed Singham. Simmba has been positioned as a spin-off of that 2011 Ajay Devgn-starrer, but Rohit Shetty - who directed the earlier film too - forgot to include in this one the panache that made Singham's melodrama and OTTness watchable and fun despite its formulaic nature.

No one does masala films like Rohit Shetty. But when he decides to infuse a moral lecture into the mix, that is where a film falters. Simmba suffers from the same curse. Sangram Bhalerao aka Simmba (Ranveer Singh) is as crooked as they come. He is an unabashedly corrupt policeman who does not hesitate to make the local ganglord Durva Ranade (Sonu Sood) his "bhai from another aai" to ensure a regular inflow of bribes.

In Singham Returns Again, oops, sorry, Simmba, a police officer sloughs off his rough-and-ready skin and emerges as the savior of the poor and meek. Wait, haven't we seen that before? Bad question, because this one could just as well have been called Singham part 3.

Director Rohit Shetty famous for his unique blend of comedy and action, has re-discovered his mojo. Simmba, his new offering with Ranveer Singh in and as Simmba has everything you expect from a Rohit Shetty film. Shetty takes the classic Hindi film formula --which was given the heave-ho with the arrival of multiplex movies -and reprises it cleverly, well... almost. Adapting the main story from the Telugu film Temper, Shetty uses the classic tropes of mainstream commercial cinema from the 70s/80s.

Rohit Shetty has to live up to the expectations for varied reasons: He teams up with Ranveer Singh for the first time... He attempts a cop story yet again... And, of course, those who have watched TEMPER will compare the two films minutely. Rohit borrows the essence from TEMPER, but modifies a major chunk of that film [especially the second half and climax]. What eventually unfolds on screen is so different, in a positive way.

If there is one director who aces the masala genre, then it is undoubtedly Rohit Shetty. Rohit knows how to tap the right emotions and bring out the best in a movie with the perfect blend of action, romance, humour, drama and thrill. Simmba, his latest venture, is no different.

Singham (Ajay Devgn) narrates the story of a notorious cop Sangram Bhalerao aka Simmba (Ranveer Singh) growing up in the same village as him. So, from childhood, he has vision clear of becoming a police officer but not to do good deeds but earn power and hence pocket money. He's crazy, he's loud but he's good at heart, Simmba in Miramar (Shivgad) faces the harsh reality of life.

For the first hour, Simmba a.k.a ACP Sangram Bhalerao plays Ranveer Singh. He is boisterous, flamboyant, kitschy, vainglorious - a fun chap who is so obsessed with Bollywood that he at once parodies and pays tribute to it. The energizer bunny in him seems to constantly be winking at us and taking the mickey out of every character he meets. His mischievous grin convinces us that he is in on the joke. Miramar police station in Goa thrives on looking fake, and he is the patron saint of excesses.

Ranveer Singh, who played a degenerate king in the January release Padmaavat, drops the curtain on 2018 as a rogue police officer in Simmba. Rohit Shetty's latest comedy-laced action film is supposed to be an official remake of the 2015 Telugu blockbuster Temper. But apart from the broad story arc, a few key scenes and lines and the only half-serious background chant of "Police! Police!", Simmba is a watered-down version - more Distemper than Temper.

"Mind is blowing," thunders Simmba whenever something makes him happy. And nothing makes him happier than money. His mantra in life is to do beimaani with full imaandaari. Ranveer Singh as the corrupt police officer is in top form in this massy entertainer. Right from the first scene he captivates your senses with his disarming charm, even when he's not doing the right thing.

Sangram Bhalerao has the word 'Police' tattooed on his forearm. This is not, as I first wondered, to remind the Assistant Commissioner what he does, but instead to exult in the power it gives him. Simmba, as he is nicknamed, grew up focussed on being a corrupt cop, and - played by a relentless Ranveer Singh - he appears to be loving it. Singh bites his lower lip while chasing crooks, as if turned on by his own valour, and walks with an odd crotch-first strut, as if a giant magnet is yanking his belt buckle, or his zipper.