Xtreme Vogue Islamabad Desk: Sidra Yusuf
Star Cast: Salman Khan, Pooja Hegde, Shehnaaz Gill, Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, Palak Tiwari, Siddharth Nigam, Jagapathi Babu, Venkatesh, Vijender Singh
Director: Farhad Samji
What’s Good: It deserves the low advance booking it’s been getting so far!
What’s Bad: You just can’t sh*t and expect people to feast upon it in the disguise of doing ‘masala films’
Loo Break: Every song! This means every alternate scene because there are songs more than the occupancy it has been getting in many theatres
Watch or Not?: Even if you’ve nothing to do, do nothing because that’s comparatively more productive
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical Release
Runtime: 162 Minutes
User Rating:
Bhaijaan (Salman Khan) is the most eligible bachelor of his ‘mohalla’, which he is trying to save from some Mafia politicians trying to vacate the area for reasons beneficial to them. But you know you just can’t do gundagardi in Bhai’s area because of uss area ka gunda bhai hai.
Bhaijaan has three worthless brothers born on the earth only to chant Bhai-Jan. Why so? It might be because they’re cast in the film purely based on doing so in real life. They’re in love, so they decide for Bhai to ship with a Bhabhi and enters Bhagya (Pooja Hegde). Bhagya starts by hesitating to call ‘Bhaijaan’ Bhaijaan for apparent reasons and goes on to talk about how she wants to touch his feet for being the great human he has been.
Bhagya wants a non-violent person for herself & how Bhaijaan won’t listen to her continue to be the human-beating monster and still wins her heart is what the film is all about.
Script Analysis
This is Veeram’s remake which was written by Siva in 2014; Farhad Samji, Sparsh Khetarpal & Tasha Bhambra have penned the screenplay to differentiate it from the original. Salman Khan’s concluding words as Bhaijaan in the film “Done to death” exactly replicate the thoughts of every cinema fan about his performance. The story takes you back to the early 2010s only to make you realise how much you’ve developed since then.
The screenplay is aligned & adjusted to celebrate Bhai’s super-stardom by making him do things he has done many times. In an action sequence, one of Salman Khan’s brother jumps on a Metro train by breaking its glass window, and in the immediate next scene, every window is broken. I’m not trying to find logic, but you can’t make it so glaring while making an actioner for a star like Salman Khan.
Farhad Samji makes the crowd in the film to call/inspire Salman Khan by whistling at him, and I think it’s only because he knew the star wouldn’t be getting any seetis from the real-life audience. He also makes Bhaijaan end many dialogues rhyming with Vande Mataram, taking jingoism to another level. He makes random girls drool over Salman Khan while he’s walking with the lead actress Pooja Hegde on the road. He makes Salman agree to do a scene in which he makes fun of Bhaijaan’s single-expression acting, an irony and a hidden joke many won’t get (Salman didn’t). Farhad Samji is the gift that would never stop giving. He makes Salman Khan grab the stick beating the Turkish ice cream trick.
Star Performance
Salman Khan continues to waste his stardom and talent by teaming up with people he should be keeping friendships with outside the business. He continues to maintain his larger-than-life image without really letting the script accommodate it. He’s not the Salman Khan the audience wants to see; he’s the Salman Khan he thinks the audience wants to see.
Pooja Hegde grabs yet another role that doesn’t justify the talent she wants to display. She plays a casual girl made to fall in love with the film’s lead actor, and that’s it; that’s her world. Again, looks good and acts good but doesn’t act enough or up to the mark owing to her lousy character sketch.
Shehnaaz Gill, Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, Palak Tiwari & Siddharth Nigam are as good as any other supporting character in a Salman Khan film, good for nothing. Jagapathi Babu’s cameo doesn’t add any depth to the already haywire story. Venkatesh is good and is the only character written with some thoughts in mind.
Direction, Music
Farhad Samji, known to make comedy (unintentional) movies, loves to keep the action as the centrepiece attraction of his films, but why? Why can’t he focus purely on comedy? Will Hera Pheri 4 be that film that makes it for him? Too many questions and too many Farhad Samji movies to be only scared to get any answers to these questions.
Ravi Basrur’s background score scores high than the scene it’s complimenting. Though loud in places (a requirement for Salman Khan films), it would be easily ignored by many owing to the rest of the mess.
The Last Word
All said and done, all the fury in my words above is solely written by that disappointed cinema fan totally aware of Salman Khan’s mega-stardom, but he can also see how Bhai is wasting something so precious. Skip for the love of brilliant movies Salman has done.
One star!
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan Trailer
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan releases on 21st April, 2023.
