Saban, Son of Saban

Kemal Sunal's Şaban usually wanders the Istanbul of his own decade. This film breaks that pattern and moves the character into the Ottoman past. Şaban keeps injuring his commander Hüsamettin during military service; once discharged, he plays music with his friend Ramazan at an entertainment house, where both fall for a singer named Nigar. After accidentally catching a criminal the police have long been hunting, they are made secret agents by Hüsamettin's father-in-law Nazır Paşa and sent to find his missing diamond. Arzu Film produced, Ertem Eğilmez directed, Sadık Şendil wrote it. The cast is the repertory company Eğilmez recycled from film to film: Kemal Sunal, Halit Akçatepe, Adile Naşit, Şener Şen, Ayşen Gruda. In any scene containing those names, timing does more work than dialogue. Who it is for: viewers who want Yeşilçam comedy at its most practised, with period costume on top. Who it is not for: anyone looking for subtlety or coherence. The plot is loose, some jokes stayed behind in the 1970s, and the film does not care.