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After seven years of Mehreen Jabbar’s Pakistani film titled RAMCHAND PAKISTANI (2008), revolving around an 8 year old kid and his father unintentionally crossing the border into Indian Territory, we now have our own BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN made on a similar kind of subject having an adorable kid girl from Pakistan lost in India, to be rescued by arguably the most popular Khan icon of the country, Salman Khan. Besides the film also has traces of GADAR (2001) and SHAHEED-E-MOHABBAT BOOTA SINGH (1999) too based on closely related story plots.
As a preview article written a day before the release (also published at IBNLive.com), I mentioned five additional USP’s of BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN other than its potential plot or Salman and expressed a personal viewpoint, that if the film is successfully able to exploit these five key points in particular in its 165 minutes of duration, then we certainly have a sure shot winner from the team, moving ahead than all those repetitive lackluster remakes featuring Salman Khan in the past. And these five unique special points were:
1. The Director – Kabir Khan
2. Harshali Malhotra (the cute little girl)
3. Journey to Pakistan (reminding you of Tara Singh of ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’)
4. Nawazuddin Siddiqui (repeating his solid support as seen in ‘Kick’)
5. And above all Lord Hanuman (as the divine saviour helping in the heartfelt task invisibly)
Luckily as speculated, BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN intelligently exploits the above five points only as its major strength and delivers a largely entertaining film with a decent first and an electrifying second half ending on an exaggerated yet emotionally charged note leaving a positive impact on the viewers. And all this, without any typical item number, specially focused love affair, romantic songs or overdose of action quite surprisingly.
To give you the details how the above mentioned USPs are well incorporated in the film, it begins with the first 10-12 minutes completely focusing on the adorable little girl, who straight away wins your heart with her innocent looks, smile and effortless expressions.
With Salman Khan being introduced as a true Bajrang Bali devotee, the ‘selfie song’ raises the spirits superbly. And then the film keeps progressing till the next hour as a simple but sweetly executed social family drama with all clean entertainment focusing on the cute little girl and differently innocent, immensely likable Salman Khan that was missing in all his recent blockbusters since WANTED. So putting it honestly, the only minus to be mentioned in the first half remains a couple of average songs, particularly the ‘Chicken’ track that surely could have been edited out to keep the pace going.
Post interval, where the film offers much more entertainment though its various sequence in Pakistan, you lost the count of creative liberties taken right from the border crossing sequence to the ‘larger-than-life’ climax, portrayed with all good intentions. Nawazuddin once again makes his much awaited entry with a bang, enacting a lifted sequence from a real life viral-video of a Pakistani reporter (having a similar name) circulated a few years back on the social networks (here is the link). Nawazuddin simply takes over from here till the end, winning hearts with his fabulous act of a kind human helping Salman and the kid girl without any hidden motives.
If watched with a realistic mindset, the film does have many ‘impossible situations’ depicting the relationship between the neighboring countries and the way Pakistan’s police/military deals with the sensitive issue of catching a spy. But after few minutes of enjoying all the pleasant insertions post interval, one begins to think that ‘to hell with whether this is possible or not, lets enjoy the proceedings on screen with the trio (Salman-the Girl & Nawazuddin) taking us onto an emotional fun-filled ride full of positive energy’. And that’s the reason you get to hear loud cheers from the audience on every fresh entry on screen in its second half, be it Nawazuddin, Om Puri, Adnan Sami and even Rajesh Sharma.
As a director Kabir Khan brilliantly rediscovers himself from being an experimental director of KABUL EXPRESS to an entertaining commercial film-maker following the Raj Kumar Hirani school of thought wherein everyone in the script has a golden heart, willing to help each other for a social cause. And this should righty be considered as a strong comeback post a half-heartedly made film as EK THA TIGER. Kabir extracts an extremely lovable performance from the charming Harshali Malhotra and also thankfully presents Salman Khan as the same old, big hearted, honest, childlike person hugely loved by one and all for their various reasons. In other words Salman actually acts this time with an author backed role performed well, answering all questions raised upon his recent performances strongly. On the other hand, Harshali is a real delight to watch with all perfect emotions and her scenes together with Salman remain the highlight of the film throughout, right till the last frame.So here we have a film that can easily be called as the best among Salman Khan starrers in the last decade with an equally important message for the ‘not so friendly’ nations along with many well-written & brightly enacted supporting acts coming from Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Om Puri, Sharat Saxena, Rajesh Sharma and more. However as far as the leading heroine of the film is concerned, Kareena Kapoor needs to be applauded for accepting this kind of (unimportant) miniscule role (almost not there in the entire second half) and making the best of her limited scenes given like a true professional.
Beautifully shot capturing the breathtaking locations of Kashmir, BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN has an impressive background score by Julius Packiam and enjoyable dialogues written by Kabir Khan & Kausan Munir together, that stay away from any standard jingoism or clichéd preaching. Also as a surprising fact, the film’s story has been written by V. Vijayendra Prasad, the story writer of BAHUBALI, setting Indian box office on fire since the last Friday. The well-crafted screenplay keeps delivering appealing sequences constantly and mentioning the key ‘stand-out’ scenes, we have the opening 10 minutes in the Samjhauta express, Harshaali praying in the mosque, first fight in the brothel, the second in the Pakistani police station, the entertaining as well as enlightening scenes with Om Puri and the fitting climax delivering the much required message to the political leaders more interested in maintaining the distance instead of reducing it.
Among the downers, the biggest one I could find was its lackluster music unexpectedly composed by the hit-machine Pritam returning from a long break. The songs no doubt have been shot well equipped with fine emotions (especially ‘Selfie Le Le’), but it’s the melody that’s missing here and the only track you feel like listening again is the one played along with the end credits. In fact even the hugely famous qawaali originally sung by Sabri Brothers (not sure whether the credits have been given to them or not) doesn’t turn out to be that impressive in Adnan Sami’s voice who is known to sing in much lower scales.
In all, BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN is a thoroughly entertaining film with its five USPs intact along with a clear message for the people of both India and Pakistan. Yes, it becomes too filmy with huge cinematic liberties taken in its border crossing sequences and the epic climax that is simply not possible in the actual scenario. But at times, such films seriously make you wish that may all the cinematic liberties taken on the screen somehow become true and we learn to forget our ugly past for the benefits of the generations to come at the earliest.
Because where people of my age might have only 20-30 years more to live on this beautiful planet (or even less), our millions of kids on both sides of the border have their complete lives to be lived in the coming decades. And it’s only WE who can leave a better peaceful world for them to cherish in the future with HIS BLESSINGS.
In the end for the readers who wish to know about its box office prospects, who can stop a film made with all noble intentions releasing on the auspicious occasion of EID along with the title remembering the most beloved Hindu deity LORD HANUMAN. So go for it at the earliest and a have good time with Harshali, Salman and Nawazuddin taking you along into Pakistan.
Ratings : 3.5 + 0.5 / 5 (With the additional 0.5 just for the valuable spirit of hope conveyed by its impossible climax that might become possible in the years to come.)
