Known as Eid to many, the festival celebrated by Muslims has over the years become synonymous to the day when Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's big budget films hit theatres. This year, Salman takes his Bhai status literally in Fahad Samji's film Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan.
Throughout the film, Salman is either addressed as Bhai, BhaiJaan or simply Jaan. His character has no name, religion and cast do not bind him and he chants Vande Mataram before bashing goons double his size. He also recites prose of the Geeta to woo the girl of his dreams
His young brothers seem to operate together. They hang out together, fight together, get emotional at the same time about the same things, romance and go on dates together. So when the three brothers want to get married, their only hindrance is their elder brother, Bhaijaan. The man had apparently vowed to never get married or let his younger brothers marry as a woman can ruin their bond.
The three brothers decide to break that vow and find a girl for their bhaijaan in order to settle down with their respective girlfriends. The yardstick is pretty simple, the girl should be called Bhagya, which was Bhaijaan's ex girlfriend's name. Their wish is fulfilled when Bhagyalakshmi comes to their colony to stay for a month
Post interval, Salman and company move to Hyderbad to meet Bhagya's family and fight goons- south style with over the top action sequences where everyone believes in using axes and swords to attack. Guns are clearly child's play in this part of the town
Salman looks old and tired. His swagger remains but the film's plot, inpisred from Tamil film Veeram is so generic and silly that Khan's superstardom cannot uplift it.
In the film, Salman defies logic, lifts cars by one hand, tackles several men double his size in one go and even head butts a man to death. The good thing about these films is that Salman only concentrates on being the superstar that he is, and so acting is done by the rest of the cast.
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan works only for its action sequences in the second half - provided you have the palate for incessant punches and mind numbing stunts. Both Khan and Venkatesh somewhat uplift the climax but the film's writers Farhad Samji, Sparsh Khetarpal, Tasha Bhambra's lazy writing shows.
Pooja Hegde and Salman Khan's romance- which forms the core story- is ice cold. It's like the girl is romancing a cucumber.
The film is also a reminder of the growing influence of south Indian films across India. Khan has been one of the early few Bollywood stars to have worked in several remakes of south hits. In his latest, instead of adapting it, he heads south- to copy-paste a very sucessful template