In my second foray into the world of Bollywood, Sultan is a the tale of Sultan Ali Khan (Salman Khan) a man who goes from the bottom to the top and back again before being given one last chance at redemption. The movie stars with Aakash (Amit Sadh) who’s backing of the introduction of MMA into the Indian mainstream has not gone well and money is being lost hand over fist, so he is given six months to turn things around and is advised by his father that the only thing which will invigorate the local population is an Indian fighter for them to support, he points him in the direction of legendary wrestler Sultan but when Aakash manages to locate this supposed legend his is politely turned down by the now aging, unfit man. He manages to track down Govind (Anant Vidhaat), a childhood friend of Sultans who begins to tell us about Sultan and his unwillingness to wrestle through a story that takes us back to many years previous when Sultan lived with his parents and spent his days helping Govind erect satellite dishes, until he met Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) a local female wrestler and fell instantly in love.

However Aarfa had no interest in Sultan so he joined her father’s wrestling club in order to gain her attention and it soon became apparent that Sultan would not stop at anything to win Aarfa’s affection but at the same time he turned out to be an extremely talented wrestler and soon found success after success in the sport. Eventually Sultan and Aarfa were married and were extremely happy together as they found happiness and success both in and out of the sport until a tragedy struck which could have been averted if Sultan has not been so focused on himself and his success so Aarfa left him, where he soon wallowed into self-pity and disappeared out of public view.

But within Sultans misery is an idea he has to open up a local blood bank in which he sees some form of pay back for what he deems as his sins but he is struggling both financially and with bureaucratic red tape so with some convincing from Aakash who agrees to sponsor him both in and out of the ring, he decides to sign up for the Indian MMA league and so begins a re-emergence of the bull of Haryana (his local town).

With a rags to riches tale, and some training montage moments which would sit easily in any Rocky movie (in fact there were early rumours that Stallone would appear as Sultans coach) Sultan is a very entertaining piece, the wrestling and MMA scenes looked realistic, with both Tyron Woodley and Marko Zaror making appearances, and the tale was very well told if a little over sentimental and slushy at times. Salman Khan is believable as both the buffoon like man that you can’t help but root for and the intense, unbending almost unstoppable, wrestler. He is a very engaging actor and although the movie is nearly three hours long it never felt like it dragged while the flashbacks and back story pieces fit neatly into the here and now scenes. If you are willing to take a chance on something a little different and forget some of the obvious cultural differences from movies you may be used to there’s a good film here which more than holds its own against a lot of the Hollywood movies I’ve watched this year.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 out Of 10