Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan Review: This one tests your patience and if you are an ardent Salman Khan fan, then it tests your love for him.
You don’t expect honesty, reality, or sanity from some films but what you should never stop expecting from a film is entertainment. A film that is not entertaining is cheating the audience and that’s exactly how you feel when you spend close to two-and-a-half hours watching Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan.
Salman Khan plays an orphan ‘bhaijaan‘, who has three adopted brothers (Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, and Siddharth Nigam). His neighbours (Satish Kaushik, Tej Sapru, and Aasif Sheikh) are like his extended family. Other actors include Bhagyashree (with her entire real family), Bhumika Chawla, Jagapathi Babu, Vijender Singh, Parag Tyagi, etc. who don’t help the film look any less confusing (not their fault). The story moves on to focus on the need for a girl in Bhaijaan’s life and enters Pooja Hegde as Bhagya. A few scenes of the market follow where she plays a damsel in distress, cooking to impress the Bhaijaan, and slowly falling for him. The relationship moves on but first, the two bhais will have to meet and that involves a lot of bloodshed because both the bhais have their own set of powerful enemies.
This is Salman Khan’s Eidi to his fans and to all those who care to watch his big screen presence quite ardently every year on the festival. The film stars the actor as ‘bhaijaan’, a title given to him by his followers and he is expected to play just that: the ultimate saviour who would do anything to protect his family, the ‘basti’ he lives in and the people of that basti. Except he just exists in the film without any character. In KKBKKJ, Salman is simply a man who’s either roaming around the streets with his hands tucked inside the pockets of his jeans or fighting goons in the same old ‘rowdy’ fashion previously seen in Dabangg, Wanted, Ready – basically, in all of his movies. What are the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Vidyut Jammwal, and Tiger Shroff even doing trying to push themselves in action with every new film? Never mind!
Before we move ahead and comment on the action, or even start questioning the presence of so many faces being wasted in the film, let’s talk about Bhai, his dance, and his appearance in it. Salman relies more heavily on the performance of his hair than anything else for this film to work for him. And that would have still been okay had the hair looked groomed, conditioned, or at least combed well. Until the hair is chopped which happens only after the interval (not a spoiler if you have watched the trailer already), you find it hard to focus on anything else happening on the screen. The flying unkempt hair doesn’t help him look any stylish. Besides, not good for your OCD if you have one. Story for another day!
Salman, who has danced his way into the hearts of his fans with oh-so-lovable ‘Oh Oh Jane Jana‘ and even ‘Jeene Ke Hai Chaar Din‘, embarrasses his fans with the ‘Naiyo Lagda‘ moves. Enough has already been said about it so we’ll move on and talk about his singing. Oh, you didn’t know he has also sung a song in this one? Well, if you don’t want to know more, this is the time to stop.
Salman does a good job with his singing in the movie than his acting. You decide what reason would you pick to avoid the film then! If you are still here and looking for more, let’s give you more!
Farhad Samji, who’s both the co-writer and director of Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ka Jaan, picks on the real-life image of Salman being the beloved ‘bhaijaan’ and tries to transcend that on-screen but while doing that, he does the biggest disservice to him and his fans. If you are not doing well with Salman’s action in the film, either make him tear up his audience like in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, or make him the ultimate jilted lover like in Tere Naam. Relying on sub-standard humour and not experimenting with action when you have him on board is probably the worst mistake you can do as a director of a Salman Khan film. And no, don’t get us started on the dialogues. Sample this: “Insaaniyat me hain bada dum. Vande Mataram!” Or “Sahi ka hoga sahi, galat ka galat. Kyuki, is desh me hai bada dum. Vande Mataram!” Time to sanitise your ears!
The only moment in the film that makes you stay there is a car scene between Venkatesh and Salman in which they discuss emotions. Anna tells Bhaijaan ’emotions are good’ and he says: “loser quality hai, emotions ko sab exploit karte hain“. Chalo, he agrees to that! It is only when Venkatesh enters the story that you believe you can rob even the best of the actors of their skills. He, in Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, is doing exactly what Pankaj Kapur did in Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon: just hanging in there in an extravaganza of everything loopy. What about Satish Kaushik, Shehnaaz Gill, Raghav Juyal, or Jassie Gill? Well, search and you’ll find nothing either here or in the movie.
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan is not an ideal film and somewhere between trying to be a South mass entertainer and a trademark Salman Khan spectacle, it fails to become even a decent experience for the most earnest lovers of the superstar. Go back and watch Tubelight twice if that’s what it takes to save yourself from KKBKKJ!
Stars: 0.5