- Release Date: – 21/04/2023
- Cast: – Salman Khan, Pooja Hegde, Venkatesh, Jagapathi Babu
- Director: – Farhad Samji
Over the years, I have noticed one recurring and interesting thing about Salman Khan and his films. This has been more pronounced since his resurgence with the extremely successful and well-made Wanted. Khan has the patience and bandwidth of giving an actor-like performance only once or twice every four-five years. Films like Sultan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Ek Tha Tiger are testaments to his acting prowess when he wants to. Unfortunately, anything that comes between these films is intolerable. The protagonists of these films are modelled on the loathsome and regressive persona that Khan is often shown flaunting in the media.
Every film that Salman Khan plays himself with his condescending tone and attitude of being the king of the world with nothing to back up that lofty claim has been a nightmare for thinking or atleast serious moviegoers like me. His latest in a lead role after a hiatus of 4 years from the big screen is one of the worst examples of this very type of cinema if it may be called cinema at all. If that was not enough, it is directed by Farhad Samji, easily the worst director in the world and I fail to understand how he still keeps getting to write and direct films after the kind of films that he has come up with in the past.
The story if there was any:
Bhaijaan (Salman Khan) is the messiah of a terribly recreated Mohalla on a film set that a cliched villain whose name I don’t care to remember wants to get his hands on. This villain is played by boxer Vijender Singh whose performance and dialogue delivery here are worse than what it was on Roadies. He should give up acting to safeguard the fond memories of his exploits in Boxing and the honour that he brought to the nation. Getting back to the plot, Bhaijaan keeps beating back Vijender’s goons and keeping the Mohalla safe. Bhaijaan also has three infuriating brothers who have even more infuriating girlfriends that they want to marry. However, for that, they must first get Bhaijaan married. In walks, Bhagyalakshmi (Pooja Hegde) in the Mohalla and the brothers plan to hitch her to their nearly 60-year-old Bhaijaan. No point in guessing that the plan works and just when Bhaijaan is about to meet the girl’s family, a dark secret about the girl is revealed that changes the dynamic of the story and also the place where the rest of it would unfold.
Salman Khan’s cringe performance:
If you think that you saw Bhai’s worst in Radhe, you are in for a surprise. He does put in a lot of effort but that is only to deliver dialogues with his stomach tucked in and trying hard not to breathe out between the lines. He also must be feeling excruciating pain trying to even harbour the notion of romancing someone of Pooja Hegde’s age when in the same film, his costar from Maine Pyaar Kiya is depicted as his ex-girlfriend who is married and has a son who is of the same age as that of Bhaijaan’s on-screen brothers. What was Samji trying to do here? Was he trolling Salman?
Bhai moves through the film with his hands tucked in his pockets and saying cringe dialogues with even more cringe attitude and zero interest in selling them. His camaraderie with his brothers is stupefying. His romantic chemistry with Pooja Hegde is as pleasant as a root canal and he looks just as much inspiring in the action sequences as Alok Nath and his costar looked convincing playing college students in Maine Pyaar Kiya. In short, Bhai is the biggest deadweight pulling down this film into the abyss.
Why is Pooja Hegde doing these films?
I fail to understand what good this film would do Pooja Hegde? It felt as if she did the film because a gun was pressed against her head until she finished her portions. The way she utters the word “Jaan” for Bhaijaan sums up what is going on in her mind. It just isn’t awkward. It is bizarre. It is also a fact that her character is written so poorly and given such bad dialogue that not even Hegde’s charm can save it even if she brought it into it with a shot of steroids to enhance its reach. If Pooja Hegde did this film thinking that it would further her career or increase her visibility with the Northern audiences, she might have taken the wrong decision.
Terrible action sequences that expose Salman Khan’s limitations:
There are people in this country who are praising the action sequences of this film. Some are calling the metro fight sequence one of the best in recent years. Some are pointing out the overhead angle taken to showcase one action sequence and sighting it as revolutionary. I don’t know if these people saw a different film or if I am too action-illiterate to appreciate good action but I found the action of the film pedestrian at best. The excessive use of stunt doubles and CGI to cover up Salman Khan’s deficiencies was so revealing and off-putting that I was completely taken out of the experience. Action works only when there is a sense of seriousness associated with it and when the story and the buildup leading into it properly. That is never the case here. There isn’t a single moment of inspiring action in this film. Add to that a haggard-looking Salman Khan who is unable to pull his own action and that is how I would like to sum up the action of this film. A boxer like Vijender Singh is made to throw punches laughably. The climactic action with six-pack abs geometrically CGI- ed on Salman Khan would give many viewers gall-bladder stones in their eyes.
Venkatesh, Jagapathi Babu and a host of other actors are purposefully wasted:
This has become a new trend in Bollywood to have actors from primarily Tamil and Telugu industries playing important characters in their films so that the marketability of the film in the southern states could be enhanced due to their presence. The challenge is for the southern actors who are fast becoming questionable choice-takers in the eyes of their own audiences when they see them in films like Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. Actors like Venkatesh and Jagapathi Babu are fantastic in the commercial films of their own state and would work well in a good Hindi film too. Sadly, in this lacklustre cringefest, they are reduced to caricatures of their previous much better parts. I am confident that when Venkatesh and Jagapathi Babu will watch this film they will realize that no amount of remuneration is enough to be belittled and wasted to this extent in a film. The same can be said about all the other actors in the film. This, however, doesn’t include the ones who are part of this film under Salman Khan’s employment benefit scheme for those who wouldn’t be taken by anyone else (for example: – the soothing as a “Tumor” Shahnaz Gill).
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Someone needs to stop Farhad Samji from making any more films:
The biggest drawback of the film was its director who seems hellbent on annoying the audience as much as possible. He emphasizes whatever is worst in the film in terms of performances, dialogues, song and dance routines, cringeworthy drama etc. He not only emphasizes these aspects of the film but willfully amplifies them to his utmost ability. He often uses recycled jokes and even picks up lines from WhatsApp forwards and puts them out as hilarious one-liners. His dealing with the story and treatment of the characters and screenplay was frustratingly bad. Every aspect of the film that was the responsibility of the director was goofed up including his inability to stop Salman Khan from wearing that atrocious wig that he, in all eventualities, brought from Fancy Bazar, Guwahati just before Holi. Samji has proved time and again that he has no interest in learning from his mistakes but instead takes pride in moving a level up in the same line that was obnoxious to start with. This might just be my last Farhad Samji film.
Final words:
I came back home with a splitting headache that needed crocin the following day and that not even a good night’s sleep could cure. These are the times when I reconsider my thought process of reviewing every new film for my readers. It is because of films like this that I feel like reviewing only films that I am confident about and never taking any risks with atrocities like these. I knew Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan would be bad but it took my belief of it being bad to a whole new level. If you want to save yourself from 2 and a half hours of torture, steer clear of this obnoxious film.
Rating: – 1/5 (1 out of 5 Stars)
The views expressed in this article are that of the reviewer and do not reflect EastMojo’s position.
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