Thursday, August 13, 2015

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

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