Na, na Bhai!

Nonika Singh

Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. No prizes for guessing the movie, so titled can be no more no less than an ode to the national Bhaijaan aka Salman Khan. No doubt, we all are privy to the superstardom of Sallu Bhai and the dashing presence he made in Pathaan was further proof that once a superstar always one. But sadly even his earnest appeal and sincere presence can’t save this Samji directorial.

Despite the bang bang of action and the subversive ploy to take us back to Salman’s first film Maine Pyar Kiya and his first heroine Bhagyashree, there is little ingenuity here. The long-haired Salman, the saviour of the basti, which looks anything but that oozes certain degree of star charisma. He is the quintessential good guy who has brought up three orphans as real brothers (Raghav Juval, Jassie Gill and Siddarth Nigam) and forsaken his love for them. The play on his eternal bachelor status could have brought in some amusement. Here it’s a convenient ploy to weave in a love story by way of another Bhagya (Pooja Hegde) as well as marry north and south.

With n number of Bollywood films which are remakes of Southern films, this Salman Khan vehicle too is a tweaked version of Tamil film Veeram. Besides, it tries to cash on the rise of South by roping in more than one South Indian star (Venkatesh, Jagapathi Babu), the net result isn’t a refreshing alchemy but an insipid combo that does great disservice to an actor of Daggubati Venktash’s calibre. As the heroine’s big brother, he could have been that perfect foil to Sallu’s Bhaijaan act. But once a rowdy Anna, now a non-violet man, he is wasted. As are the other bunch of actors who are merely at service of boosting Salman’s aura.

We know in a Salman Khan film logic be damned. Questions like what Bhaijaan does for a living, why the basti looks like a regular dwelling and its inhabitants ultra-glamorous, what brings an antique conservator Bhagya (Pooja Hegde) from Hyderabad to this basti are not meant to be asked, let alone beget answers.

Sure enough, a SKF film is meant to put up your legs, relax and enjoy. For a while, with late Satish Kaushik reminding us what a natural he was and set action pieces involving both the hero and the villain do delude us into believing this could be harmless fun. But as we move from Delhi to South India, as we cross one song after another, we even kind of like Salman crooning ‘I am falling in love’ along with Amaal Mallik and Shabbir Ahmed. The emotional drama is somewhat okay too.

But somewhere along the line to borrow Salman’s words, ‘mein switch off ho gaya’. Hereafter, neither the villain from South India (Jagapathi Babu) out to decimate Bhagya’s family nor the manufactured South Indian flavour can bring us on. Sallu bhai may say, ‘”jab shareer, dil aur dimaag mujh se kehte hai bhai no more to mein kehta hoon bring it on’. Wish we could utter the same. Instead we are tempted to echo, ‘no more Bhaijaan’. Just by the way did we hear the word ‘brainstorming’ somewhere being thrown about in the film. Now that is the joke we get…In film that actually references nursery rhymes in a Yo Yo Honey Singh song. Pay heed to the line, ‘I am so lazy’. Watch at your own peril or only if Bhai’s presence on silver screen makes the day for you.