Piyush Roy
Bajrangi Bhaijaan, undoubtedly is Salman Khan’s most ‘Un-Salman’ film, not only from the time he became ‘the Superstar’, but also perhaps in his entire career. The film has a proper storyline, where the focus isn’t its star, for a change. It is helmed by a director, who wants to articulate a certain point-of-view on the ongoing topsy-turvy in Indo-Pak ‘official’ politics, the futile frictions between Hindu-Muslim community relationships, and to reinforce that secularism still, is a way of life among a majority of residents in the Indian sub-continent. The film’s messages are far diverse than the simplistic ‘good will win over evil’mood of most Salman Khanmasala films. It is enriched by competent performances led by believable characterisation.
Performance-wise, I would still rate Dabangg, where the actor did become the characteras the career best from Salman so far. But after Chulbul Pandey, Pawan Kumar ‘Bajrangi’ does come the closest among his recent films to give us moments of pure character driven acting, though the star keeps returning to some of his signature antics in its dance and action moments.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan also is Salman Khan’s most daring film. The ‘real’ heroine of the film is a six-year-old, there is only one discernible fight scene in which we barely see the hero hitting, an almost non-existing romantic sub-plot, and an equal division of screen time between a star and an unknown new child, with a supporting character driving most of the drama in the film’s second half. No wonder, when the character of Nawazuddin Siddiqui makes his first onscreen appearance the audience in the theatre where I saw the film, gave him a far more resounding whistle and claps welcome than heroine Kareena Kapoor, almost like the entry scene of Salman. I watched Bajrangi Bhaijaan in a traditional, ‘masses’ populated single screentheatre in Bhubaneshwar this week. But this ‘mass’ of whistle blowing, spontaneously reacting audience was no less discerning than the ‘couched-in-their-high-brow-cocoon’ critics; with the crescendo of their appreciation peaking only at the film’s truly triumphant heart-warming moments. That the extent of its expression of admiration for its superstar was no less than that for the film’s other character stars, indicated that the audience was as much acknowledging of stardom as genuine talent.
The music of the film is another winner with not a single song moment feeling an insert or a halt in the narrative. Music director Pritam composes his career’s best Sufi song (though tad inspired) in the Adnan Sami performed Quwalli, which is the film’s undisputed highlight music moment, with a narrative, visual and rendered impact akin to the iconic Piya Haji Ali song fromFiza, composed by A.R. Rahman.The other unforgettable music scene is an aggressive chanting of the Hanuman Chalisa in the film’s lone action sequence that takes the drama in that moment notches higher in its perfect catching of the essence of its hero’s unspoken strength and grit. TV and filmmakers randomly inserting chants and mantras as background score should take a lesson or two from Bajrangi Bhaijaanon how to make them integral to the unfolding action. Last but not least is the film’s evocative camerawork that enhances the narrative’s epic ambitions, while subtly reinforcing that Kashmir indeed, is the Switzerland of the Indian sub-continent.
The film’s director Kabir Khan started his career as a documentary filmmaker. That style of economic storytelling and an eye to evoke drama from the most conventional faces and characters is retained in his career’s most ambitious outing. The only scene where his ‘tightly held’ screenplay does seem to wander in the aura of its superstar is in its long drawn climax that tends to linger far beyond its superhero’s limps, and its little super girl’s miracle experience, to slightly short change the impact of the film’s hopeful end. But it’s a technical fault that happens too late with too little for any lasting impact, and hence one rarely feels stretchedat any moment in this near three-hour long film.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a utopian film. One should not confuse it for reality though it offers some promising triggers for hope. It aspires to elevate its politically fractured landscape and character motivations to a harmonic possibility where majority of Indians and Pakistanis wish to see their nations reach or at least genuinely aspire to arrive at! The reality maybe a different ‘unhappy’ tale; but hope lies in the inherently shared, universal beats of humanity that abound within each of us beneath the recent surface frictions of religion and nation.Bajrangi Bhaijaanopts to delve into the much longer shared common bonds of culture and tradition in the lifeline of centuries old communities to make a discernible auteur plea for sanity and sensibility. Who can critique such noble intentions, especially when articulated with sincerity; but the reason I would not mind meeting Bhai Bajrangi on the big screen again, would however be to simply savour the silent star potential of his young, debuting co-star, the angel faced Harshaali Malhotra,who beyond doubt is Hindi cinema’s most effective child star discovery since Jugal Hansraj in Shekhar Kapoor’s Masoom!