Movie Review : Bharat

Bharat: An Extraordinary journey yet NOT so extraordinary

“Bharat” as the name suggests has patriotic theme throughout. Based on the 2014 Korean movie “Ode To My Father” the movie traces the journey of an ordinary man Bharat (Salman Khan) through the various events of India, right from partition till 2010.

Original Story written by Su-jin Park and adapted screenplay by Varun V Sharma and director Ali Abbas Zafar, could have been an emotional joy ride of only they had stuck to the original format. But Varun and Ali choose an alternative wherein they try to mix humour with the emotional content, and that is where somewhere the content loses its steam.

It starts with the event of partition and how Bharat is separated from his father and sister, makes an emotional and a perfect beginning. The movie progresses to Bharat in his young age wherein he works in a circus to fend for his family, the sequence is weak and ends abruptly making no sense to the overall story. The third sequence of Bharat joining the oil field in UAE where he meets Kumud (Katrina Kaif) does pull your heart strings and keeps you engaged till Intermission. The next sequence of Bharat joining the merchant Navy is the weakest and just does not make any sense to the overall proceedings, rather you feel impatient in this sequence as it goes on with no specific agenda. The movie again gets a boost in the sequence wherein “Bharat” goes in search of his father and lost sister. This sequence is the strongest and does make you choke. But again the movie dips at the climax sequence giving it a shoddy finish.

The problem with the movie is the events in Bharat’s life is not stitched properly and Emotional Quotient which is so important in a Drama dips at times. Though Varun and Ali try to make it entertaining by putting comic elements but they fail miserably. Some of the characters are not fleshed out properly and the focus is on the central character Bharat throughout. The emotion of other characters are not catered at all and you do not feel connected due to this reason. Bharat as a character is forcefully shown as a messiah. Well such characters were fine in the 80’s, but in today’s world of
realistic cinema the character looks dated. The pre climax fight sequence and the only fight sequence looks out of place and suddenly an ordinary man becomes a superman, it was just not needed. The major issue of the smovie is that, it is NOT a typical Salman Khan movie, which his fans would have been expecting. Though the movie has its moments but only moments cannot define an entire movie of 167 minutes. The biggest problem of the movie is its run time which could have been trimmed. The songs just does not gel with the story and it looks forced in the movie.

Performance wise Salman Khan as Bharat revisits his Sooraj Barjatya Prem act which is so dated in today’s time. Salman really needs to rethink his strategy if he wants to be in this race of content oriented cinema. Katrina Kaif as Kumud, Bharat’s boss and love interest still creates an impact, ignoring her accent overall she does a good job. Katrina for a change is more of histrionics and less of glamour, but I still didn’t understand the horrendous curly hair style. Disha Patani is exactly there for 5 to 8 minutes, and is there for a slight glamour. Sunil Grover as Vilaiti, Bharat’s best friend does do a good job. Jackie Shroff as Bharat’s father does shine. But the real surprise is Tabu as Meher, Bharat’s sister whose guest appearance makes you choke for sure, again confirming what brilliant actress she is. Other actors like Sonali Kulkarni, Shashank Arora, Aasif Sheikh, Kumud Mishra, Ayesha Raza Mishra are wasted in not so well written characters.

Some of the major highlights of the movie are the production design by Rajnish Hadeo, Snigdha Basu & Sumit Basu which is completely in sync with the times portrayed in the movie, Cinematography by Marcin Laskawiec adds on to the overall appeal. Though the same cannot be said about the costume design by Ashley Rebello, Alvira Agnihotri, Veera Kapur and Leena Bains as it looks inconsistent. Music is the key for any Salman Khan movie but unfortunately Bharat cannot boast of that, other than “Chashni” the rest of the songs do not create any impact whatsoever.

Director Ali Abbas Zafar wanted to make a movie which was hugely mounted and larger than life but what he gives is a mish mash of some impactful and some not so impactful sequences which looks disjointed and does not gel on an overall scheme of things. Another decision of casting Salman Khan as Bharat I thought was not a good decision, as it required a good actor and Salman maybe a star but an actor well less said the better.

There are some movies which is neither BAD nor so GOOD and you feel it could have been better well I had the same feeling after watching “Bharat”….I will go with Three Stars…

Movie Rating: (3 / 5)