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Bajrangi Bhaijan: Salman khan
The fun of enjoying a Desi movie in Vides----great! The fun of watching Desis crowd into a 20 screen multiplex to watch a Bollywood biggie over and above 19 Hollywood blockbusters----fantastic! The fun of watching Salman Khan defining humanity as the supreme religion----unparalleled! Bajrangi Bhaijan proved all the more fulfilling as I watched it in far away California! And before my friends accuse and remind me of my strong Salman Khan bias, let me admit unabashedly, that he has given me a reason, all over again, to continue to hold him in higher esteem than many of his peers from Mumbai!
So, Bajrangi Bhaijan is the story of a mute girl from Pakistan who is separated from her parents while in India and how the God fearing, Good Samaritan Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi alias Bajrangi sets about ensuring her reunion with her family. The little girl, alternately named Munni, is the most loveable and heart wrenchingly innocent kid and pivotal character around whom the story is woven! She is the heroine while Kareena Kapoor is the highly dispensable element in the movie! She emotes with her eyes and each time her mouth quivers or her eyes moisten up in memory of chicken tikka or Shahid Afridi, you feel a lump in your throat! The film has used humour and created comic situations most befittingly to unfurl the story and characterisation. Whether it is the manner in which the realisation about her cast/religion/country of origin dawns upon Salman or his escapade across the border from under the barbed wire fencing, humour has been used with great craft and finesse! So much so that despite a serious theme, the movie never weighs upon you. Stereotypes of cast, religion, nationality have been handled so naturally and effortlessly, that you accept them as they unfold, without squirming in your seats, unflinching in your belief about their credibility.
At one point I thought that Salman was going to succeed in carrying Munni and the movie on his shoulders, till the final destination. But I hadn't bargained for Nawazuddin, the maverick, small town reporter in Pakistan, who finds his genius in the unfolding drama and quietly creates a huge place for himself in the movie! The journey across some of the most picturesque settings in Kashmir makes you yearn for more! The reunion between Munni and her mother contributes towards the high degree of pathos in the film. But the political fallout of Salman's escapade into Pakistan, which, by the way, he entered only after "permission", leaves much to be desired! The climax is all too predictable but I can't imagine it ending any other way!
Great script and direction, credible performances by Salman, Munni and Nawazuddiin, make the film a serious, thought provoking experience! Does your Faith provide you with courage and kindness of such magnitude? Does Religion have any value before Humanitarian values? Is one the synonym of the other? What are geographical boundaries and political ambitions in the face of humanity? In the end, All the elements that matter in the sub-continent find a place in the movie; cast, religion, nationality, cricket, border policing and its infringements, lost child so reminiscent of partition, Kashmir, Gandhi, Jinnah, espionage et al! The movie was meant to succeed!
As my niece put it: humanity is best depicted in the innocence and mute suffering of a child and that fantasy has always been cleverly deployed by Bollywood to raise regional socio-cultural-political issues! But rarely so well!
Salman your sins of Kick, forgiven and forgotten!
So, Bajrangi Bhaijan is the story of a mute girl from Pakistan who is separated from her parents while in India and how the God fearing, Good Samaritan Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi alias Bajrangi sets about ensuring her reunion with her family. The little girl, alternately named Munni, is the most loveable and heart wrenchingly innocent kid and pivotal character around whom the story is woven! She is the heroine while Kareena Kapoor is the highly dispensable element in the movie! She emotes with her eyes and each time her mouth quivers or her eyes moisten up in memory of chicken tikka or Shahid Afridi, you feel a lump in your throat! The film has used humour and created comic situations most befittingly to unfurl the story and characterisation. Whether it is the manner in which the realisation about her cast/religion/country of origin dawns upon Salman or his escapade across the border from under the barbed wire fencing, humour has been used with great craft and finesse! So much so that despite a serious theme, the movie never weighs upon you. Stereotypes of cast, religion, nationality have been handled so naturally and effortlessly, that you accept them as they unfold, without squirming in your seats, unflinching in your belief about their credibility.
At one point I thought that Salman was going to succeed in carrying Munni and the movie on his shoulders, till the final destination. But I hadn't bargained for Nawazuddin, the maverick, small town reporter in Pakistan, who finds his genius in the unfolding drama and quietly creates a huge place for himself in the movie! The journey across some of the most picturesque settings in Kashmir makes you yearn for more! The reunion between Munni and her mother contributes towards the high degree of pathos in the film. But the political fallout of Salman's escapade into Pakistan, which, by the way, he entered only after "permission", leaves much to be desired! The climax is all too predictable but I can't imagine it ending any other way!
Great script and direction, credible performances by Salman, Munni and Nawazuddiin, make the film a serious, thought provoking experience! Does your Faith provide you with courage and kindness of such magnitude? Does Religion have any value before Humanitarian values? Is one the synonym of the other? What are geographical boundaries and political ambitions in the face of humanity? In the end, All the elements that matter in the sub-continent find a place in the movie; cast, religion, nationality, cricket, border policing and its infringements, lost child so reminiscent of partition, Kashmir, Gandhi, Jinnah, espionage et al! The movie was meant to succeed!
As my niece put it: humanity is best depicted in the innocence and mute suffering of a child and that fantasy has always been cleverly deployed by Bollywood to raise regional socio-cultural-political issues! But rarely so well!
Salman your sins of Kick, forgiven and forgotten!
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