MovieNotes: Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Title: Bajrangi Bhaijaan (IMDB)

*ing: Salman Khan, Nawazuddin Siddique, Kareena Kapoor, Harshali Malhotra

Language: Hindi & Urdu

Director: Kabir Khan

Genre: Society & Politics

Basic Premise

An Indian man trying to help a little mute girl from Pakistan who was accidentally left behind in India, without any documents, and taking her back to her parents.

MovieNotes 

What Works

• The simplistic storyline without any over the top action works well for the film.
• Nawaazuddin is brilliant as a struggling journalist trying his best for the big scoop.
• Young Harshaali Malhotra is the real star of the film with her activities taking the story forward.
• The many actors in the small but critical roles making the film memorable
• Bajrangi’s simplistic beliefs e.g. treating every monkey as a representation of Lord Hanuman.

What Doesn’t

• Hard core Salman fans (not me) would be disappointed that Bhai doesn’t get to show off his usual stuff (e.g. Chulbul Pandey)
• Music – not much to remember the movie by.

MovieNotes

• An excellent PR exercise for the lead actor, which shows him getting sympathy of people from all walks of life cutting across religious, political, class divide.
• RSS being depicted in a positive light alongwith “balanced” religious fundamentalism – this is something new for the Indian film industry. Either religious people can be good-hearted or fundamentalist but this is something new.
• Movie tries to depict people are basically same across the border but divided by politics.
• Religious barriers are not too hard to overcome, everyone just needs to take that first step.
• Social media can work wonders at time, but you have to make it viral first.
• Afridi's last over blast off Ashwin in Asia Cup 2014 are now immortalized on screen. (Scorecard)

Rating – 7/10. It’s a surprisingly well made movie with lots of funny interludes.

Bonus Shot – video of the real life “Chand Nawab”, inspiration for Nawazuddin’s character

Previously on MovieNotes - Inside Out