Jai Ho (24 Jan 2014)

Cast: Salman Khan, Tabu, Daisy Shah, Naman Jain, Mohnish Behl, Danny Denzongpa, Ashmit Patel, Yash Tonk, Bruna Abdullah, Nadira Babbar, Mahesh Thakur, Resham Tipnis, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sana Khan, Mukul Dev, Santosh Shukla

Director: Sohail Khan

An ex army official (not exactly your common man), who in the past had been removed from the Indian Army for ignoring his superior’s command and undertaking an extra step to save civilians from the terrorists, not to mention, risking his own life a great deal in the process, lives his present by assisting the civilians in myriad ways possible and saving them from all possible modes of harassment. Ask him for any sort of assistance (even taking a kid to the loo) and he is there. Trouble anyone in any manner (even pushing off a street urchin), and he is there. Thank him for his help, and he asks you to help three other people instead, and tell them each to do the same! This is the protagonist of the movie ‘Jai Ho’ i.e. your very own Salman Khan, aka the ‘bhai’ of the masses.

‘Jai Ho’ is the official remake of Telugu film ‘Stalin’ (2006) and it intends to give social service message and impart noble teaching. The philanthropist in Salman Khan completely takes over his character, and when he emotes, the following seem real and genuine - the restlessness and pain towards suffering of others, frustration of not being able to change the system, anger and hatred towards the bad guys, ruthless bashing of the villains etc.

Apart from this, any of his other scenes, or even the rest of the movie has no depth, meaning or connectivity! It seems that the presence of the superstar was taken a wee bit too much for granted and as such no real effort was put towards the making of a good movie! Even the fitness of the superstar (supposed to be his primary appeal) was not deemed necessary for all the scenes. Barring a few last minute scenes, Salman Khan appears overweight (read prominent double chin) and tired (read puffy eyes) in most of the movie. Still he manages to look better than the rest of the cast!

Casting is purely whimsical or, you can say that going by the pulse of ‘Jai Ho’, it mostly seems to be an act of good deed by the actor-producer brother duo (Salman and Sohail). They apparently fulfilled their promises made to various individuals and groups, of giving them the opportunity to act or dance in their film! Apart from that, they seem to have pulled in a great chunk of their friends and loyalists to act in the movie. Be prepared to see an army of known as well as long forgotten popular faces (both from Bollywood and TV) to appear one by one in the film. Tabu seems to be the only well thought of case of casting. She well befits the role of a righteous, no nonsense and strong sister. The debutant Daisy Shah has no defining role as such but a couple of dancing songs, and therein she has performed pretty well. The surprise package of the movie is Bruna Abdullah. Till her last scene, you expect her to break into an item number, which never happens!

If you belong to that strata of the common man that is heavily weighed down by the system, who wants to rebel and retaliate badly but cannot dare to do so for the fear of being subjected to further atrocities that would be thrown upon by the corrupt authorities to maintain their power and clout, you will enjoy the movie because with every snarl that Salman will roar and with every punch that he will throw, you will feel a step closer to the sense of closure for all your sufferings. Also, if you are a die hard Salman fan, you will enjoy the movie, as he is present in most of the frames. But if you are a serious movie enthusiast, who looks for logic, technique, newness and performance in a movie, be prepared to experience the severe messing up of your sense of movie watching.