Aakash Oberoi (Amit Sadh), a young entrepreneur, is on the verge of a breakdown because his idea of bringing Mixed Martial Arts contests to India isn’t working out. His father advises him to rope in a local fighter, apparently because nobody thirsts more for victory than a “common Indian”.
 

The old man then suggests a name: Sultan Ali Khan.
 

Sultan (Salman Khan), a 40-year-old former wrestler, has seen the highs and lows of life. Going into the flashback, we are introduced to Sultan’s younger self at a time when nobody could beat him in a sprint. A chance meeting with Aarfa (Anushka Sharma), an ambitious wrestler eyeing the Olympic gold, ignites a fiery passion in Sultan’s life. Blinded by love and convinced that the only way he can win over Aarfa is by learning to wrestle, Sultan trains hard. After a particularly harsh talk-down from her about his lack of purpose, he turns into a world-beating wrestler almost overnight.
 

Regardless of a portion of the typical Bollywood razzle-stun, this may be the most legitimate execution Khan has done on screen in 10 years. He is scared of his opponents and fails to hide his pain despite being the strong, silent unlike his other portrayals. 
 

The director’s biggest success lies in taming Salman’s overpowering persona. Zafar further breaks the film into three distinct acts, and the actor excels in each of them. From playing a done-and-dusted home-grown wrestler to a wonder-boy of freestyle fighting, you see Salman put up a performance like never before.
 

Sharma shines as Aarfa and tries her best to inject some chemistry into her romance with Khan. Randeep Hooda, in a brief role as a fighting coach is the perfect foil to Khan’s often-sardonic character, and Anant Sharma shines as Govind, Sultan’s sidekick and long-time friend.
 

The bad guys may be missing, but “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.