Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan

one can only do the normal thing and go for Bhai’s film first day first show. Salman Khan and his relationship with Eid has been long standing, ever since Dabangg in 2010. With his lowest first day opening being of 14 crores with Dabangg which went out to become a blockbuster to having a massive opening like 42 Crores with Bharat that just released a few years ago. This is Salman Khan’s theatrical release as a lead since Dabangg 3 came out in 2019. There has been a lot of speculation and expectations about the quality of this film as music from the film has been as recurring as a metro during peak hours. The official remake of the Tamil film Veeram starring Ajith Kumar, this hindi movie directed by Farhad Samji focusses on Bhaijaan played by Salman Khan, who paints, sculpts and does gym and by occupation is the elder brother of three boys, Moh, Ishq and Love. The only solution that Bhaijaan has in order to deal with conflict is through violence and his expertise AKA physical combat but the man mends his ways and embarks on the journey of non violence for the sake of his romantic internet, Bhagyalaxmi played by Pooja Hegde. But as one acknowledges that the antagonist Nageshwar played by Jagapathi Babu has a score to settle with Bhagyalaxmi’s family, specifically Daggubati Venkatesh, Bhaijaan does everything in his might to stop the threats and protect his new family! The tamil remake is not remembered as an exemplary commercial entertainer, even die hard Ajith fans will tell you that it isn’t that special, so the reasons for picking up the source material and how it churned out still makes me scratch my head, wondering what the creators were thinking. As I muster up the courage to create an objective analysis, bear with me, here’s me telling you the good and bad aspects of the film so that you guys can ultimately decide whether to watch KISI KA BHAI KISI KI JAAN in theatres or not! The Good Satish Kaushik & A Fun Cameo: It was so lovely to see Satish Kaushik on the big screen. With the heartbreaking news of his demise, trust Satish ji to have a sense of realism even in the ludicrous events that were taking place around him. He is the individual with two of his friends who knows about the 4 brothers really well and it does produce some genuinely heartfelt, warm and funny moments in the initial minutes of the film. He basically takes up the role of an advisor and seems like the most real character in the over the top universe. One wonders why Bhaijaan has never got into a relationship and the first half of the film focusses on a throwback cameo which will definitely put a smile on your face. There is something extremely cute about the creative decision of designing this cameo and 90s kids will definitely have a perpetual grin throughout its sequence. Ravi Basrur & Staging Of Some Action Set Pieces: One of the things that many fans were attempting to defend the film with was by saying that at least the action sequences seem interesting. That even though the movie may be filled with cringeworthy dialogues and absurd logic, at least Salman in action will be fun. The sad reality of the film is that you really have to dig deep to talk about the moments of combat which were actually engaging. The much hyped train sequence is choppily edited, having too many jump cuts and taking away from what could otherwise have been an exceptional action set piece to showcase the prowess of Salman the action hero. There is only one case of inventiveness where Salman stabs several goons in quick succession. I’ll actually argue, its not the train sequence but the action outside Bhagyalaxmi’s house as Bhaijaan and his three brothers protect the family from goons late in the evening that actually stands out. There is this exceptional drone shot covering all the brothers beating up the goons that really looks badass. The less I say about the climax action scene the better but more on that later. It would also be fair to say that Ravi Basrur does place his best foot forward in this film, it will also make you wonder if Ravi Basrur and Salman were not in this film, who in their right mind would be interested in seeing this. Other than Salman’s attempt at action & his perpetual state of putting his hands in his pockets and strutting a nonchalant attitude, Venkatesh Daggubati with Salman lift the second half of the film slightly but the script and screenplay is so mediocre, that I can’t help but expand on its several demerits! The Underwhelming Aspects Too Many Songs With Mediocre To Laughable Choreography: The way the songs of this movie were releasing, I genuinely felt that there is going to be no end to the number of songs. A rollercoaster ride of good, bad and the absurd can be best described as the creative campaign of this film. A movie with a running time of 2 hours and 24 minutes packing in close to 8 or more songs made me wonder that this may really be detrimental to the story, if there is one, I mean the movie essentially is a long running music video with action breaks. The songs are just produced on a larger scale like old Rohit Shetty movies that would packed hundreds of dancers and while the frames look filled with humans, the picturisation of the songs, coupled by the choreography are mediocre at best. Naiyo Lagda while a throwback to vintage romantic songs, becomes unintentionally funny, especially while seeing the lunges in high definition on the big screen. Falling In Love presents the meet cute but a DESI THARRA swig & just the way Pooja and Salman interact with one another, it really makes the banter artificial rather than organic. O BALLE BALLE is probably the most forgettable dance track sung by Sukhbir I may have heard in a long time. There is some respite with dance numbers like BILLI BILLI and Yentamma, especially taking into consideration Ram Charan’s appearance but I just realised I am going on and on about the music and choreography and not mentioning the pinnacle of song writing that was LETS DANCE CHOTU MOTU and is very much a part of the films conclusion. I can just imagine this song to be used to distract crying IPAD dependent babies and put it on repeat for parents to catch a breather, if that was the intention then kudos to the makers. I am actually convinced Salman is in on the joke and has categorically pushed this film to the genre of so bad that its good by making it a long music video with 3-4 action set pieces and present it as a film that will be lapped up by the public, I think the masses have acknowledged the same and know better, at least I hope so. Poor Dialogues: Written by Farhad Samji, Sparsh Ketrapal and Tasha Bhambra, the essential element of a carefree commercial action entertainer is that its dialogues should pack the punch to be the out and out MASALA film we all tune in for. Take into consideration, Salman’s iconic dialogues like the one in Wanted where he says, Jis School Me Tune Ye Sab Sikha He Na…Uska Headmaster Aaj Bhi Mujhse Tuition Leta He, the one in Dabangg that goes, Hum Yaha Ke Robin Hood Hain.. Robin hood Pandey. Or my favourite from Sultan, a truly mass dialogue, Koi tumhe tab tak nahi hara sakta ... jab tak tum khud se na haar jao! Even with the commercial tonality of his films, Salman has always managed to pack in zingers that are not only funny and clever at times but hard hitting as well. KISI KA BHAI KISI KI JAAN is absolutely devoid of effective dialogues and writing, its more in the category of riddles and essays rather than punchlines,. JAB KISI NON VIOLENT AADMI KE PEECHE EK VIOLENCE AADMI PADH JAAYE, USS NON VIOLENCE AADMI KE SAAMNE, EK BOHAT HEE VIOLENT AADMI KO KHADA HONA ZAROORI HAI and this is repeated twice. The dialogues often take the tone of becoming random, saying lines like INSANIYAT MEIN BADA DAM, VANDE MATRAM, ISS DESH MEIN HAI BADA DAM VANDE MATRAM, the number of times they say VANDE MATRAM, you actually begin to wonder whether this is a patriotic film, the nationalistic sentiment has nothing to do with the plot. If its intention is to be self aware and frivolous it did its job, if the intention was to be actually put forth some impressive writing, it just did not land! What’s even worse is Salman attempts to speak half broken hindi to be comprehensible for his Hyderabadi villains, saying dialogues like TUM ITTA NEECHE KAISE GIRA or HUM SWITCH OFF HO CHUKA HAI! The dialogues are really soar to the ears with this film and the only stand out being, Salman saying, UNKE DARE SE ZYADA MERA KHUAF HAI Unintentionally Funny & Lack Of Effort: You think about mass moments in commercial movies and its all about conviction but when Salman gets introduced and throws his leather jacket in The air to wear it while he is falling down, it all just seems half baked rather than having the conviction of the days of Dabangg and Ready. Salman picks up a car with his bear hands and moves it because he isn’t happy with the way its parked so one characters notices and exclaims, ISKA YEH OCD KA PROBLEM KABHI JAAYEGA NAHI. The attempt at comedy by Salman falls flat when he tells one of the goons about his boss KI, KITTA BHI KAMEENA HO RACIST NAHI HAI and the camera pans to one of his bodyguards who is an African man. A doctor exclaims that the brothers are HOMOERECTUS and one character replies ARRE NAHI, INKI TOH GIRLFRIENDS HAIN. The attempt at showcasing culture from Hyderabad is the bare minimum, Pooja Hegde keeps on mentioning, AGAR YEH SOUTH MEIN HOTA NA, HUM SOUTH WAALE NA and the interval also presents the text, welcome to south India, already preparing us for the Hyderabad tour we will have in the second half. There is no organic flow to the screenplay, just one music video, one action set piece after the other. Motley Crew Of Forgettable Characters & Terrible Villain: There are literally so many characters in this film that reviewers of this film would be lying to you if they told you that all the individuals had some kind of profound impact on the story. The siblings and the girlfriends are a motley crew of stereotypes and their fear of their elder brother coupled with their meet cute with their respective partners barely has any impact for one to create a critical analysis as if one will be in the reckoning for a best debut award. The sheer density of the population in each frame and the overarching story eventually being focussed on Bhaijaan and his ability to protect his loved ones dampens the impact that any of the supporting cast can really have in this film! They also just echo the same dialogues and sometimes overact, actually taking away from the emotion that should be felt. There is an attempt to present emotional moments among the brothers but while Salman effortlessly cries, the brothers struggle to even come close to match that feeling. I had communicated on how the importance of commercial entertainers like this is that the villain should be compelling but the antagonist in the form of JAGAPATHI BABU has the most stale motivation and portrayal and while it still produces flashes of evil, Vijender Singh is absolutely embarrassing as the villain, really not generating even an iota of fear in the climax. KISI KA BHAI KISI KI JAAN is as mediocre of a project that one can think of when one even considers Salman’s Eid releases. Its packed with generic tropes and over the top sequences that really damage the star value of Salman, whom we all root for to come back stronger with Tiger 3 and put an end to projects where he’s just helping out out of work actors under his banner. The only silver lining I can think of regarding this film, is that at least its better than Radhe.