Debutant director Abhinav Kashyap would have committed a crime if he would not have taken Sallu bhai of Bollywood for his directorial debut Dabangg. No one else from the fraternity could have essayed the role of Chulbul Robinhood Pandey than Salman Khan. By featuring Salman Khan in Dabangg, Kashyap, who was assistant director of Yuva, scores brownie points.

Sigh…finally Sallu is better than just flaunting his brawn and biceps in Dabangg. Seriously, after Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Tere Naam, Salman Khan had been typecast as such. Dabangg is such a relief, only if you are to concentrate on Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) who likes to call himself Robinhood Pandey of Uttar Pradesh. No matter how hackneyed and threadbare the screenplay, Chulbul Pandey has all the ingredients of a Bollywood masala movie.

Chulbul Pandey lives with his mother Naini (Dimple Kapadia), step father Prajapati Pandey (Vinod Khanna) and Makhi (half-brother). Chulbul hates his step dad since because Prajapati always poured all his attention on Makhi (Arbaaz Khan). Though Chulbul loves his half brother, he does not feel quite as ease in showing his emotions. His mom is the only person he is close with.

The film divides itself into three plots – the ongoing conflict between Chulbul Pandey and his step father, his romantic life with Rajjo (Sonakshi Sinha) and the action scenes between Chulbul Pandey and a goon-cum-politician Cheddi Singh (Sonu Sood).

While the scriptwriters Deelip Sukhla and the director try to balance the movie between action and comedy, they succeed in making the action scenes outstand but fail flat when it comes to making the audience seriously laugh. Because the execution is poorly taken care of, many sequences don’t go hand in hand. Director Abhinav Kashyap must have gone overly ambitious as he was roping in too many big names together in the film. Characters played by Dimple Kapadia, Om Puri, Tinu Anand, Anupam Kher and Mahie Gill are simply forgettable. Even Sonakshi Sinha, the lead actress, is simply an eye candy.