Saturday, July 18, 2015
Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Being Human
It’s a tragedy—we live in such terrible times, that a film like Bajrangi Bhaijaan needs to be made.
Kabir Khan’s film gives out a simple message of humanity beyond borders. That
people everywhere are essentially kind—except when greed intervenes—and it’s
the politicians who divide to rule. That
India and Pakistan may be separated by a barbed wire fence and rival cricket
teams, but their hearts beat as one. It
is sad that communities are so divided that a film has to make a big deal
about a Hindu saying Salaam and a Muslim
saying Jai Shri Ram (though the Hindi equivalent would actually be Namaskar!)
Salman Khan plays Pavan aka Bajrangi, a good-for-nothing duffer (his
father actually dies of shock when he passes an exam!) so devoted to Hanuman
that he bows before every monkey he sees. He has an RSS background and is a
vegetarian Brahmin, whose feet tremble when is forced to enter a mosque.
Into his life drops a mute six-year-old Pakistani moppet Shahida
(Harshaali Malhotra), separated from her mother when visiting India. Since she
can’t speak or read Bajrangi and his host’s daughter Rasika (Kareena Kapoor)
guess very gradually from her behavior (fondness for non-veg food) that she is
a “Mohammedan” and later (gasp!) a Pakistani (when she cheers for the Pak
cricket team).
The idea is to be simplistic, illogical and manipulative or
Bajrangi and Rasika could have done what a Pakistani journalist Chand Nawab
(Nawazuddin Siddiqui) does later—put her story on the net to help find her
parents. Of course, that would have been
end of story before the intermission, and would not have allowed Bajrangi to get
into Pakistan illegally and let audiences see how kind and helpful people
across the border are. An armyman risks court martial to let him enter
Pakistan, a cop throws his career to
help him return—a journalist, bus conductor, maulvi, ordinary people, all join in his noble mission to reunite
the child with her parents. The only evil ones are an Indian travel agent who
tries to sell the kid to a brothel (so that Salman Khan gets a fight scene) and
a Pakistani politician who wants to brand
Bajrangi a spy (so Salman gets to take his shirt off and endure torture in
prison.)
Kabir Khan, who had made relatively sophisticated films so far,
goes full massy with this film, playing on Salman Khan’s strengths and star
power. Only habitual scene-stealer
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and to some extent, Om Puri in a tiny part as a maulvi
leave their mark in this Salmanfest. The
Kareena Kapoor character might as well have been left on the editing room
floor, so redundant is her part.
Salman Khan does not even have to act, he just has to ‘be’ for
the audience to flock to his films—this one is such an unapologetic tear-jerker
and obsequious crowd pleaser that nobody will even have a what-the-hell thought
till much later. Somewhat like returning
from a party to discover that your pocket has been picked.
Labels: Cinemaah
