Movie Review – BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN (Hindi)

I am aware this review is being presented almost after 5 days of release. The fact that screen 3 of Fun Cinemas, Chembur, Mumbai where I watched this movie is packed to the full even on the 4^th day(21st July) after release is proof enough for the talk this Salman Khan starrer has generated.

If there is any movie in the recent past that had the potential to touch the core of a viewer’s heart, it is this – Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

The ‘real hero’ of the film is a seven-year old cute girl called Harshaali Malhotra who played the role of Shaheeda alias Munni. It looks like this girl is born only to play the role. So fantabulous is her performance that every married couple who watch the movie would want to have such a sweet looking girl as daughter.

The story is that of a small girl Shaheeda( played by Harshaali)from Sultanpur Village in Pakistan who gets lost in India and gets reunited with her family thanks to the valiant and selfless efforts of a Hanuman devotee Pavan Kumar Chaturvedi aka Bajrangi( played by Salman Khan). The first song ‘selfie le le re’ in which Salman gets introduced is awesome. Every frame in which Shaheeda, the speech-impaired, gets separated from her mother while crossing the Wagah border and ends up at Kurukshetra in a goods train are heart-touching. The screenplay showing how she gets to connect with Pavan and the events therefrom are shot and depicted in an extra-ordinary manner and speak of the high directorial abilities of Kabir Khan, the Director. He touched upon every burning problem that we face in our country especially how girl children could end up in prostitution houses, our iron-cast belief systems and practices that are more restrictive than accommodative.

The film also depicts how small time TV reporters long for getting primetime news from their respective locations but fail to do so due to lack of any such opportunities and media biases. Nawazuddin Siddiqui who played the role as Pakistani reporter Chand Nawab did a fantastic job. One of his dialogues “nafrat aasani se bikh jaathi hai, lekin mohabbat………” holds a mirror to the relationship between two countries and also human relations. The dialogues written by Kabir Khan himself are the highlight of the movie in addition to the smooth and extra-ordinary screenplay. There is enough comedy for those who like to keep laughing even in the face of difficulties. Om Puri played a brief impressive role as Molana Saab and the conversations between him and Bajrangi while at Madarsa are thought provoking. The heroine of the film Rasika(Kareena Kapoor Khan) did her bit well though she had little role to play. Sharat Saxena, who acted as Dayanand Dwivedi(Rasika’s father and friend of Bajrangi’s father) was at his natural best. Meher Vij wonderfully presented mother’s love as Shaheeda’s mother. Music by Pritam and background score by Packiam is in complete sync with the drama on the screen and elevate viewer’s watching experience.

Some of the scenes are worth a special mention: the manner in which Bajrangi crosses the border and talks repeatedly about it; the way Rasika’s family gets to know that Shaheeda is from Pakistan and not from India while watching India-Pakistan cricket match; Shaheeda’s entry into masjid for prayers and her chicken-eating antiques; the climax scene in which Bajrangi wishes Pakistanis in their style and not his usual Jai Sriram; Shaheeda and Bajrangi’s brief reunion in the climax. There are many such scenes which need a big word of praise for director Kabir Khan as it is his show all the way.

This superbly presented story given by K.V.Vijayendra Prasad (the same writer as Baahubali) has shades of at least three Tollywood movies. The scenes involving Pavan Kumar and his father (played by Atul Shrivastava) would remind the Telugu audience of Nuvvu Naaku Nacchhav (of Venkatesh). The adventure of Pavan in trying to reunite Shaheeda too has shades of the film Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari( of Sridevi and Chiranjeevi) in which Raju( played by Chiranjeevi) goes to fetch a life-saving herb from Himalayas braving all odds to save a small girl in that movie. Incidentally Chiranjeevi also is a hardcore Hanuman devotee in that movie. Another movie that we are likely to be reminded is that of Vikramaarkudu (of Ravi Teja) in which the hero tries to get ‘rid’ of a small girl who was after him for reasons that unfold in the later part of that movie.

Rarely do we have movies in Indian film history that have EQ (Entertainment Quotient) along with equal doses of MQ (Message Quotient) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan has both EQ and MQ. I would recommend that the PMs of India and Pakistan along with their ministers and armed forces heads watch this movie twice, once in India and once in Pakistan. What a hundred cricket matches (most of them only increased the gap between the two countries) and several high level meetings could not do, the message (remove fences that separate and build bridges of love that unite) in this film could do if only both countries’ heads seriously started looking at the issues at hand from a fresh perspective though we all know that it is one thing in movies and another in real life. There is nothing lost when one attempts to do good deeds.

Till then it is kudos to Kabir Khan and team for the wonderful movie that will last a life time in Indian film history. And for my readers who believe in genuine ratings – I would give this film a 5/5.