No one in Mumbai’s entertainment industry is saying it out loud. But a crippling fear grips the industry as Eid draws near. Eid as we all know, is the time for ‘Bhaijaan’ Salman Khan to serve up his cinema to his fanatical fans, know as Salmaniacs.
They clap,whistle and cheer as ‘Bhai’(give or take the ‘Jaan’) swaggers across the screen swimming in a pool of selfaware machismo…
Will that swag work this time? Plenty has changed in the past three years , for civilization and for cinema. Not for our Salman Bhai Jaan. He is stuck in a time warp.He continues to believe that his fans love him the way he is , uninvolved, un-evolved, a ball of (r)aging fire.
At 57 he looks ridiculously incongruous with Pooja Hegde who is half his age, but she’s habituated to heroes old enough to be her Bhaijaan playing her boyfriend in the South.In Bollywood celluloid misalliances are not excused. Not any more. Akshay Kumar’s cradle-snatching nod to Indian history with Manushi Chhillar in Samrat Prithviraj was a complete non-happening.
Things look worse for Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. The trailer which was released on April 10 is a massive mess , unruly,terribly edited ,clumsily assembled.The dialogues sound like whatsapp messages, forwarded. A firm directorial hand is conspicuously absent. On top of all the other fatal flaws, there is Salman’s flowing locks. Hair today grown tomorrow!
A director who has worked with Salman in the past and who fell out with the demi-god/superstar when he tried to direct the director guffaws, “It’s as if he(Salman) has decided to put the worst moments of the film in the trailer. What we see is cringe-worthy.”
There is a profound anxiety in the film trade about the boxoffice prospects of Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ka Jaan .According to most in-the-know people that I spoke to within the industry including directors and trade analysts , Salman’s propensity towards ghost-direction is compromising his career. In this case, Salman apparently directed almost every frame and scene while the official director Farhad Samji swallowed his pride and allowed his leading man to call the shots on the set.
“Who argues with Bhai? If he says ‘Action’ it is time for action. If he says ‘Cut’ it is time to quit,” a friend of the actor whispers.
No one is allowed to say the truth about Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan: it looks like a disaster. It is the myth of the emperor’s clothes, unplugged.