Cinemaah

Slow Motion Mein

It is a grandiose idea—linking the fate of a man called Bharat to the story of India. If Ali Abbas Zafar wanted to pull it off, maybe he should have looked at Forrest Gump for inspiration, rather than Korean film Ode To My Father.

Bharat begins well, the seventy-year-old Bharat has taken his large brood to a particular station, where he celebrates his birthday every year. By his side is Kumud or Madam-Sir (Katrina Kaif), who, it turns out never married him, and had a journey far more interesting than Bharat’s—in fact, the story of post-Independence Indian women can be seen through Kumud’s progress, though she is just a bystander in Bharat’s life. 

For some inexplicable reason, the family does not know Bharat’s backstory and he decides to tell it in flashback, from the time of Partition, when he is separated from his father (Jackie Shroff) and sister, while his mother (Sonali Kulkarni) and two younger siblings make it safely to India. The father made Bharat promise to look after the family, and promised to come to the provision store run by his sister. Which is why Bharat resists offers to sell the shop for the establishment of a new mall.

Instead of weaving India’s historical milestones into Bharat’s journey, Zafar has him and his best buddy Vilayati (Sunil Grover) work in a circus (the film’s most colourful portion, with a Disha Patani dance!), then as oil field workers in the Gulf (where he and Kumud fall in love) and later as mechanics on a merchant navy ship. In a voiceover, Bharat talks of a few historical events, like the death of Nehru, India’s world cup victory in 1983, the advent of satellite television and globalization, but no mention of other important episodes like the wars with Pakistan and China, the Emergency, the assassination of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, or the telecom revolution.

What a waste of an opportunity to portray the evolution of modern India!  But that would have required research and deft writing; why bother when the Korean film’s template was there to adapt? There are a couple of throwaway touches, like a young Amitabh Bachchan watching the circus and adapting Vilayati’s man-in-egg act for a future film (Amar Akbar Anthony); or Somali pirates sparing the lives of Indian sailors, when they sing Bachchan numbers.

If Salman Khan plays Bharat, of course he gets to be heroic --he saves fellow workers from a gas leak and pirates, and even as an old man, beats up hitmen sent to attack him. He also remains fiercely loyal to his family to the extent of living in with Kumud instead of marrying her, but with his mother’s approval. For emotional manipulation Zafar includes a TV show that seeks to reunite family members separated during Partition!

Far from being an epic that it could have been, it is just a chance for Salman Khan to appear in varied costumes against different backdrops. With the focus on him at all times, to the extent of treating other actors-- except Grover and Kaif-- like pieces of furniture, the star musters up enough enthusiasm to give an earnest performance—Zafar had also got him to wake up and act in his earlier Sultan. However, Bharat is disappointing for viewers who are not Salman fans.

Art Has No Religion

Characters in Zaigham Imam’s Nakkash, say with an air of fear or apology that the “mahaul” has changed. Which means that in Varanasi, where it was not unusual for Muslim craftsmen to work in Hindu temples for generations, religious bigotry has raised its ugly head.

Allah Rakha (Inaamulhaq) is an engraver of beautiful gold-leaf frescos, a craft that his family has been practicing for generations.  Bhagwandas Vedanti (Kumud Mishra), the priest of a major temple, who has given Allah the job of decorating a Ram Mandir, does not discriminate on the basis of religion, but even he advises caution. (The names of the two noble characters mean God.)  So Allah changes his appearance when he goes to the temple and returns home.

His own community has ostracized him because of his work in temples, so that his son is refused admission to the local madarsa. His only friend is rickshaw driver Samad (Sharib Hashmi), whose problem is a cantankerous father, insisting on being sent for Haj.  This cheerful man is later driven to religious conservatism.

Around the city, the Hindutva brigade is led by political hopeful, Munna (Pawan Tiwari), who happens to be Vedanti’s son. Allah’s pride in his work and Vedanti’s belief in the excellence of his “nakkashi” are destroyed when the artisan is arrested for theft of the temple’s gold jewellery.

After establishing the characters and their connections, instead of delving deeper into the issues, the film falls back on characters uttering platitudes on religious amity, like “Bhagwan kaun hain? Allah ke bhai.”

Imam has his heart in the right place, and what the film wants to say is very important in today’s fractious times, but except for a few scenes, the somewhat contrived story is not gripping enough; instead of building up tension, it wanders off into a pointless subplot about the widower Allah Rakha’s second marriage to Sabiha (Gulki Joshi), whose feistiness in her introductory scene does not lead to anything.

The actors lift it with sincere performances, and Inaamulhaq carries off the lead role with conviction. At least the film talks sense, for which it deserves audience support.