Sultan is predictable, no two questions about it. But it’s powered by a riveting central performance that makes you overlook so many of its problems.

Sultan is an entertainer with heft. Salman Khan aces it with a full-bodied, fully-earned performance in the movie and is ably supported by rest of the cast.

I’ ll warn you that at 2 hours and 50 minutes, Sultan is much too long. The music by Vishal and Shekhar is lilting but there are too many song breaks.
But I left the film satiated, like I had eaten too much atarich, many-flavoured feast.

Sultan has all the right ingredients of a ‘masala’ potboiler, and whistling and sobbing are likely to go hand-in-hand here. Don’t go looking for a twist ending, though. We all know what to expect from such a film, but it’s still a lot of fun to see the underdog win.

‘Sultan’ is the best feast on this Eid. The film is recommended not only to Salman Khan’s fans but also to the family audience who were awaiting a family drama high on emotions, just like YRF style.

The Rocky trace (the commercial scene tips its hat at Rocky II) is unmistakable and Zafar does try to emulate Balboa’s motto of ‘not about hard you hit but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.’ But at almost three hours running time, no thanks to a couple of completely needless songs, a spirited but spent Sultan slogs its way to knockout.

Sultan is a Salman Khan film made solely for the superstar’s fans. It has everything to please its target audience. It has megahit written all over it.

The trouble is its length. At nearly three hours of runtime, Sultan gets heavy and repetitive…Go watch Sultan – it’s got moments of “ghana” good fun.

The bad guys may be missing, but “Sultan” has everything else that makes for a satisfying Bollywood film.

Ten minutes into the film and you’re into Sultan Ali Khan’s world – it’s Salman’s performance that makes the character so multi-dimensional. This is indeed his crowning glory as a performer. His masterstroke is a scene where Sultan is looking at his body in the mirror when it’s out of shape.

Sultan is ultimately a tropes-laden affair, with unnecessary songs and plot contrivances.It does have its occasional charm courtesy a nice supporting turn by Anant Sharma as hero ka friend who provides the laughs and then suddenly in second half becomes Sultan’s ringside aid. But what keeps the 170-minute sports drama from being a borefest is but of course Salman Khan.

Sultan is not a sports drama! It is a sheer Salman Khan drama. For its entertainment value and a cliched but watchable storyline, I am going with a 3/5 for the film.

SULTAN comes across as a paisa vasool, seeti-maar unadulterated entertainer which will be loved by classes and masses alike. At the box office, the lack of a credible opposition, perfect release timing [festival period] combined with an extended 5-day weekend will ensure that the film will break records and emerge as the biggest hit of the year so far. The film has got ‘B-L-O-C-K-B-U-S-T-E-R’ written all over it. Go for it!

This is a Salman Khan film and when it manages to entertainment all along, I am ready to overlook the nuances.

For Salman’s fans, Eid celebrations have definitely started early because this one is a sure winner.

‘Sultan’ will rake in the moolah and I am sure the makers can already hear the cash registers ringing.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan set the trend for Salman Khan where he steered clear of the whistles and claps style of entertainment. Sultan is an effort to add to that thought, trying to add grit and realism to Salman’s brand of cinema. But unfortunately, Sultan also tries to sneak in larger-than-life heroism and action. It’s definitely not a bad effort, that the film talks about sports and athletes in India is good intentions at their best. When it comes to entertainment, Sultan packs a solid punch.

What cringes SULTAN for a rational/reasonable viewer is the maker’s complete surrender of novelty, and innovations in his sports drama, considering the banner YRF, which gave CHAK DE! INDIA the SRK starrer has now become a cult and is hailed as SRK’s best ever.

SULTAN fails to break such norms while bhai happily breaks bones in the ring to please his fans thus ‘dhobi pachad-ing’ (limiting) this to a highly predictable but harmless watch.

Zafar’s film is likely to have mass appeal and even win appreciation. But the yardstick being used is Salman’s filmography itself, and I reject the notion that the star is his own genre because it’s a convenient excuse to make mediocre films that will be over-praised merely if one gets a few of the basics right.

‘Sultan’ is a fun watch, offering the perfect fix to lift a not-so-great day. It’s about love and the will to do anything that comes with protecting it. It’s also about bringing yourself back from the dead, and saying, ‘I am not going anywhere’ — something that Sultan and Salman Khan, the man, have in common, despite their disparate destinies. The ‘public’ is going to lap this one up.

Staggeringly engaging , remarkably rugged and unexpectedly  romantic Sultan is every bit the comprehensive blockbuster it  promised to be.Watching the accomplished storytelling and the deft characterizations in Sultan it is hard to believe that this work comes from the director of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and Gunday.

Despite these flaws and several clichés, Sultan has an emotional core that is hard to resist. Writer-director Zafar is clever in the way he uses his actors, the innate poignancy of his story and Vishal-Shekhar’s songs to create a moving whole. Even when Jag ghoomeya is abruptly and awkwardly inserted into the narrative, the tune and words do not lose their appeal. And the very well choreographed MMA (mixed martial arts) scenes in the second half are spot on.

Sultan is a blockbuster and will go on to write box-office history. It will smash old box-office records and create new ones. It will turn out to be one of the biggest ever blockbusters, if not THE BIGGEST ever so far!

The most anticipated film of the year: Salman Khan’s Eid release, Yash Raj films and the film has been directed by Aditya Chopra himself. But what starts out to be a promising romance between sportspersons (both are wrestlers) soon dives headlong into a horribly predictable tale badly told. How you will hanker for Chak De!

‘Sultan’ is an entertaining film, probably the best of 2016. But, don’t expect it to be an entire sports drama. Salman-Anushka’s Haryanvi chemistry remains the USP of this film and the action scenes will definitely make your heart pop out. 

The film gets a big thumbs up from our side. 

Salman’s ‘Sultan’ will add more charm to Eid for sure. 

Besides imparting a relevant message about the power of perseverance, the film is remarkable for its well-written dialogues, rounded characters, convincing performances and songs that refuse to leave you.

‘Sultan’ is anaction filled dramatically decent film with full grandness attached to it. It lacks highly on the conviction factor due to which fails to come even close to Salman’s best film ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’.

Easily Salman’s best performance till date, Sultan is a solid trump card for the actor and his director Ali Abbas.

Everyone does their job with a degree of professionalism befitting a YRF production. There’s too much slo-mo as usual, but Artur Żurawski’s camerawork is nimble. Vishal-Shekhar’s title song is played something like a dozen times in the film, and is catchy enough to withstand this overuse (credit, also, to Irshad Kamil’s lyrics). Zafar’s writing is simplistic but rousing; one could say the same of his direction too.

Staggeringly engaging, remarkably rugged and unexpectedly romantic, Sultan is every bit the comprehensive blockbuster it promised to be. Watching the accomplished storytelling and the deft characterisations in Sultan, it is hard to believe that this work comes from the director of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and Gunday. Quite a dizzying climb!

Sultan doesn’t get boring. The music is engaging, the visuals are crisp and fight sequences from the second half arrest your attention while they last. They take the edge off the flat plot, yet not a whole lot.

Writer-director Ali Abbas Zafar, whose filmography includes lacklustre films like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and Gunday, breaks a jinx with this delightful flick. He builds the muscled monolith’s narrative effectively to garner empathy for his turbulent journey.

In spite of being a Bhai film it showcases the woman’s cause — PM’s beti bachao abhiyan in the backdrop of Haryana, infamous for female foeticide and a lopsided sex ratio. What could be nicer?

Overall, Sultan is an out and out family entertainer that would enthrall the average viewer with its themes of love, sacrifice, success, failure, guilt and redemption.
The high level of predictability and lack of plausibility of Sultan’s plot may disappoint the sophisticated audiences, but the rest will savor it without any reservations. Salman Khan continues to be on a roll. Another grand box-office opening is on the cards for him.

Well, it’s a Salman Khan movie after all. And there is no denying that he left no stones unturned to make the film worth watching!

Sultan is a refreshing change to all Bollywood films made on sports.. It shows the story of a slacker/loser becoming a winner, fighting some personal battles and equating the victory with his personal win as well. Beautiful.  Sultan is indeed rare. This, only, if you forget Lagaan, Chak De India, Mary Kom, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Kai Po Che, Patiala House, Iqbal, Dil Bole Hadippa, Sala Khadoos, Azhar, Ferrari Ki Sawari, Hawa Hawai, Paan Singh Tomar…phew!

Sultan is perfectly watchable, Salman’s star power gives the film an edge but it is still an opportunity lost. Expect it to get the cash registers ringing but Sultan will be forgotten after two helpings of Eid’s biryani.

Sultan is billed as fiction but at its heart, it’s really a biopic of Salman Khan, the dark star who has now attained supernova status.

For Salman Khan’s diehard fans, it’s a perfect family watch on a gloomy rainy day, go for it and for those who are not his fans, which is a rarity, you can wait for it to premier on TV. 

This is a movie with both a heart and a solid body that delivers a socko punch of entertainment…