Super Cowboy (2010), also known as Irumbukkotai Murattu Singam, is a Western set in India. That's not that unusual; I've seen a lot of Indian movies that toy with Western tropes, but Super Cowboy is totally committed to the bit. Every character looks and acts like somebody from the old West. Sometimes that's good, and sometimes, not so much.
Singaram (Lawrence Raghavendra) is a semi-reformed thief and a terrible security guard. After a priceless diamond is stolen on his watch, the town puts him on trial and then sentences him to death. Singaram insists that he did not steal the diamond, but nobody cares. They're holding him responsible anyway.
At the last moment, Singaram is rescued by a band of masked men who turn out to be middle aged dudes from the nearby village of Jayshankarapuram. The men explain that their village is being menaced by the bandit warlord Kizhakku Katai (Nassar), master of the Iron Fort. Jayshankarapuram had a protector, an amazing gunslinger named Singam, but he has vanished. Singaram happens to look exactly like the missing Singam, so if he will play the part long enough to rally the villagers to fight back, they'll give him their diamond, which happens to look exactly like the stolen gem. Singaram agrees, and so we have a plot.
Singaram is not much of a gunslinger, but he is a pretty good actor, and before long he's inspired the townspeople to stand up for themselves, and also managed to catch the eye of Baali (Padmapriya), the town's pretty young doctor. Katai's henchman Ulakkai (Sai Kumar), also known as Cheetah, tries to kill the returned hero, but thanks to a combination of skillful bluffing, help from the middle aged dudes, and dumb luck, Cheetah is driven off. Unfortunately, Katai has a plan for that.
Despite the Western trappings, the movie is set in sort of contemporary South India. (The opening narration claims that it's the Eighteenth Century, but that is immediately followed by a trial scene which directly references Amitabh Bachchan. It's not the Eighteenth Century.) However, the tribal people living near Jayshankarapuram dress and speak like stereotypical Hollywood native Americans, though they draw upon stereotypical representations of indigenous peoples from many continents. They're treated with more respect than the Rakshasa from Maharaj Ki Jai Ho, but that is damning with very faint praise indeed.
Anyway, Katai's big scheme is to attack the tribals and place the blame on Singam. It works, Singaram and friends are captured and about to be sacrificed (ugh) when Singaram saves the day and makes peace through his amazing dance skills. The tribals agree to join the fight against Katai if Singaram will agree to marry the chief's beautiful daughter Thumbi (Sandhya). Singaram negotiates a long engagement.
And then the movie suddenly shifts genre as representatives of all three factions team up to discover an ancient treasure by following a mysterious map and then solving a series of puzzles, which gives Katai's right hand woman Pakki (Lakshmi Rai) a chance to become Potential Love Interest #3.
The switch in genres doesn't last long, though, because this is a movie that is passionate about embracing Western tropes, so there has to be a climactic gunfight before our hero can ride off into the sunset with his love interest of choice. I just wish they had been more careful about which Western tropes to embrace.
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