there are somethings that are just meant to be together. over a period of time, they not just become synonymous with each other but also complement each other to the fullest. amongst the many examples for this, one such combination is the release of a salman khan film during the auspicious occasion of eid. like almost every year, this year too, salman khan has gifted his fans their 'eidi' in the form of bajrangi bhaijaan. will this film be worth the wait and live up to its gigantic expectations, let's analyze.
the film starts off with a pakistani village household cheering for pakistan while watching its nail biting crucial cricket match with india on television. inspired by the ace pakistani cricketer shahid afridi, a to be mother from the household names her daughter as shahida (harshaali malhotra). the girl despite being beautiful and expressive does not speak a word, which worries her parents day after day. on the advice of an elderly person in the family, shahida's mother decides to take shahida to a wish-fulfilling holy dargah in delhi, india. on their way back to pakistan, their train halts due to a technical failure. that's when the innocent and animal loving shahida sees a helpless lamb fallen in a pit. she gets down from the train and just when she rescues the lamb, the train starts moving, thus leaving her behind in an unknown country all alone. she quickly boards the next immediate train and reaches delhi. it is here when she meets the extremely god fearing and a devout hanuman bhakth pavan kumar chaturvedi aka bajrangi (salman khan). with the intention of helping the little girl who cannot talk, bajrangi takes her home, only to be ridiculed by his family members. the only person who stands by him is his to-be-wife rasika (kareena kapoor). pavan and rasika try their level best to 'decode' the identity of the child by dropping names of almost all the indian states, but in vain. havoc strikes their family household when they discover that munni (aka shahida) not only eats meat, but is also a muslim and above all… a pakistani! that's when pavan decides to brave all the odds (visa issues, passport problems etc). despite all the odds, when bajrangi manages to cross the indo-pak border, but gets caught by the pakistan police, who label him off as an indian spy. that's when bajrangi encounters a freelance news reporter chaand nawab (nawazuddin siddiqui), who shoots the whole pavan-munni 'adventures' on his handycam, hoping this will be his big ticket to name and fame as a journalist. however, as he discovers their pavan's good intentions, he too joins the duo in their journey and helps them out. does chaand nawab manage to 'encash' on the pavan-munni story in order to be taken seriously as a journalist, does pavan succeed in uniting munni with her parents, does the ever-truthful pavan manage to prove his innocence of him not being a spy before the pakistani police and how does the simpleton bajrangi gets transformed into 'bajrangi bhaijaan' is what forms the rest of the story.
first things first. director kabir khan captures the attention of the viewers right from first shot of this character driven film. the impeccable camaraderie between him and his lead star salman khan was seen in their last blockbuster film ek tha tiger. this time round, the camaraderie has grown by leaps and bounds, which can be seen in this film. for all those who have seen kabir khan's work in thriller and action films like kabul express, new york and ek tha tiger will be in for a huge surprise when they see bajrangi bhaijaan. he has very sensibly handled the emotional scenes, without going overboard. while the tempo of the film is set in the first ten minutes, it is very rare that any film has ever started on such an emotional high. amongst the many indo-pak films that have been made in the past, bajrangi bhaijaan stands out amongst all of them because this film stays away from the usual jingoism and preachiness.
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