So, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is Salman Khan’s most daring film where Salman presents a beautiful performance - but allows the story to be the real dabangg. Pawan( Salman) aka’Bajrangi’ is a devout Shri Hanuman bhakt who meets a speech-impaired child( Harshaali) wandering alone, hungry and silent. Bajrangi decides to help the child, whom he calls Munni, return to her family - which is in Pakistan.
Facing borders and biases, lacking a visa, called a spy, can Bajrangi get Munni home - and return to India himself?
With Bajrangi, you meet a whole new Salman - this is not the shirt-ripping, ab-flaunting, dialogue-maro-ing Khan but a simple, innocent and honest man, who fails, gets tricked and beaten up - but never shaken from his purpose. With gentleness and no gimmicks, Salman puts on a polished, luminous performance - and is matched by little Harshaali, whose vulnerability and warmth are amazing.
Add a crackling Nawazuddin, as small-time Pakistani journalist Chand Nawab, hungry for’Bariking News’ but moved beyond TRPs by Bajrangi’s quest, and the screen’s alight with lovely acting, with a hilarious’Begum’, a child who glows and wanes like the sun, humans who treasure humanity beyond barbed wire and border guards.
Alongside memorable performances( Om Puri chuckles through a Maulvi cameo while Sharat Saxena wrestles with prejudice as Bajrangi’s potential father-in-law), the story features gentle comedy - Bajrangi’s chats with Pakistan’s border security are hilarious - and soulful qawallis. Its beautiful visuals travel unobtrusively from mohallas to mountain peaks, across priceless moments including Bajrangi’s panic-struck stammering to pretty fiance Rasika( Kareena), Munni, woh, woh - woh hai!
The plot could be tighter, sagging slightly until Nawaz’s lively entry. However, you see a director evolve - Kabir Khan’s fascination with borders shows again, but while his Ek Tha Tiger was a glamorous cosmopolitan cocktail, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a pure South Asian jalebi, rounded, warm, simple and sweet. Kabir captures the tension of India-Pakistan without negativity and with soft charm, skillfully using a superstar as an actor, a child artist as a superstar and a border as a muse that opens up the world.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan emphasizes how, amidst visas and wars, there are also angels about who don’t see doors. They see homes, lives and children - and sometimes, children see angels too.
It makes a beautiful, mubarak point - one that’s very dabangg too.