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Salman Khan's latest film, Bharat, like most of his recent releases, is tailored to appeal to his die-hard fans. You know, the ones who found the major flaws in Sultan and Tiger Zinda Hai ignorable, and hail them as masterpieces. All the three films mentioned here are directed by one man, Ali Abbas Zafar, who has not delivered a single flop till date. He also has got the pulse of what works for Salman Khan fanbase by now. Bharat stars Katrina Kaif, Disha Patani, Sunil Grover, Jackie Shroff and Sonali Kulkarni, in addition to Salman himself. Bharat Movie Review: Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif’s Film Finds Its Strengths in the Emotions; the Rest Is Utterly Forgettable!
Unlike the other two Bhai movies that Zafar had directed, Bharat is an official remake of a Korean film, the 2014 drama Ode To My Father. Except that, the movie steers much away from the source material to cater to Bhai's sensibilities, only relying on the original film to deliver on the emotional notes.
These sentimental scenes (as well as the grand canvas on which it is mounted) stop Bharat from being a trainwreck. But the movie is not without its fair share of silly scenes, misogynistic jokes, and WTF moments that we usually associate with a mainstream Bollywood film of this scale, especially in a Bhai movie. In this special feature, we look at 11 such moments in the film, that are either ridiculous or incredulous or plain random!
Bharat Trying to Kill A Land Broker
In one of the opening scenes, Bharat (Salman Khan) calls a sleazy land broker (Rajeev Gupta) to a room and tries to strangulate him! Why? 'Cos the latter only suggests that Bharat sell his shop to a builder to make a mall. So why this psychopathic turn? A simple 'NO' would have sufficed!
Salman Khan's Unconvincing Old Man Act
Dear Salman Khan, a white wig and a completely fake, gruff voice don't amount to being a 70-year old man. There is something called body language too! The same goes to Katrina Kaif's transformation too, where the maker tries to pass her off as a 70-year old hot lady, by putting one or two wrinkles on her face!
Breaking Up With Radha
Bharat's first crush was Radha (Disha Patani), an artist at the circus troupe where he works as a daredevil stuntman. She also loved him back, and things were going hunky dory in their romance. Then his brother (Shashank Arora, wasted) attempts a bike stunt imitating Bharat, and breaks his leg. This prompts him to leave the troupe, as he doesn't want the youngsters to emulate him and drive rashly (snicker...snicker). That's fine with us, but why the need to break up with Radha? Was there really no way for them to keep their romance alive? Heard of this thing called 'letters'?
The Pre-Recruitment Drive
Bharat and his BFF Vilayti (Sunil Grover)'s attempts to go to work in Gulf is a series of badly written skits. While they manage to make Bhai take off his shirt (on the pretence of physical examination), the scenes also lend itself to making jokes on body-shaming and farts. There is also an extended gag on a character's underwear being passed from one section of the room to another. Groan!
The Jana Gana Mana Scene
If the bad jokes weren't tiresome enough, there is also needless insertion of jingoism in the film. When Bharat and his friends don't get through the physical evaluation, he extols to the recruitment officer the benefits of sending Indians to Gulf for the sake of economy. The rant ends with the whole gang singing the national anthem, that too in full, for no goddamn reason other than placing itself in the current nationalist wave. Dear makers, if you want to see how to insert the anthem organically in a film, do watch Chak De India or Dangal!
Parveen Babi Reference
When Bharat and Vilayati finally get to Gulf, they see the recruitment clerk Kumud (Katrina Kaif) is also in the region, having ditched her sari to be seen in a shirt and trousers. This prompts Vilayati to comment that she looks like Parveen Babi. For a film that is supposed to be well-researched, as Zafar had claimed in an interview, it forgets that Babi had made her Bollywood debut in 1973, while the above scene had played in the late '60s. Vilayati must have been a seer or something!
Sonali Kulkarni's Casting
Sonali Kulkarni has been cast as Jackie Shroff's wife and Salman Khan's mother. Despite the fact that she is nine years younger to the star playing her son! This makes for an awkward situation when Sonali's character has to share the screen with her adult son, where the actress looks more like his younger sister rather than his mother.
The Malta Sequence
The much-hyped Nora Fatehi sequence arrives when Bharat and Vilayati land in Malta during a fleet assignment, where Nora and her gang of skimpily clad troupe greet them. Who are they and what makes her jump immediately to Vilayati's creepy proposal to marry her is something we have to stop asking. Because this is an opportunity for the makers to film a Punjabi track in Malta, and for Nora to show off her moves!
The Hijacking Saga
The trailers promised the Somalian hijacking sequence would be the one to watch out for, on the lines of Captain Phillips. Instead, it is one of the most absurd scenes in the movie, where Bharat negotiates with the pirates by cracking racist jokes and then end up bonding with them on Amitabh Bachchan songs. Like WHAAAT!!!!
There is also Satish Kaushik who plays the captain of the Merchant Navy fleet that Bharat and Vilayati later become a part of. And he has a speech defect that makes him talk gibberish. Just so that the movie can eke some cheap laughs out of the audience. Why, oh, why?
Zee TV's HD Transmission in the '90s
Near the climax, Bharat finally gets to meet his long lost sister (Tabu), who is in London with her new family. Their reunion is made possible through live streaming by the channel, Zee TV (where Kumud is the creative director), and it is one of the most emotional moments of the film. Only if you do not think too deep into it! Because, if you really think about it, the scene is set in 1993, when India is just discovering cable television. But in the film, Zee not only has seamless Live streaming across continents, but it is also in crystal clear HD quality where Bharat can even see the little mole near his sister's ear. So why did you wait for a decade more to give us HD content, Zee?
The Random Fight Scene in the Climax
Salman Khan's films need to have two staple ingredients - a shirtless scene of the superstar and a random fight scene. Tubelight had neither, so it flopped. In Bharat, we have both, that too in a randomly inserted manner. Near the end of the film, there is a needless action scene where an old Bharat takes on bike-riding goons with ease, because Bhai Hai Toh Mumkin Hai! Considering those goons were sent by the broker who Bharat tried to kill earlier... ah, well... it makes some kinda sense!
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 05, 2019 06:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
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