Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ka Anna: Salman Khan film makes a mockery of pan-India films – The Indian Express

Sadly, virtually three many years later, nothing has modified as Salman Khan’s new movie, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan reveals. Or to paraphrase Lucius Malfoy’s line, simply if you thought Bollywood might stoop no decrease in its shameless generalization of southern India, it does.

Ever since Pushpa launched and made Bollywood scratch their heads and quake of their boots concurrently, there have been makes an attempt at making each Bollywood movie a pan-Indian phenomenon. A collaboration between actors and industries is an excellent concept on paper. But when they don’t seem to be dealt with competitively, they find yourself being nothing greater than an unmitigated catastrophe.

Kisi ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan options Salman Khan as ‘he who has no title’ or faith and is known as Bhaijaan by his three brothers and everybody in his pin code. The voluntary bachelor bhaijaan meets his match in Telugu woman Bhagya, (Pooja Hegde) quick for Bhagyalakshmi, who restores antiques and fairly poetically even falls for one. What else can one say a few man who’s over twenty years older to her and says regressive issues like ‘one mistaken girl can break a household’?

So, Bhagya is from Hyderabad and her ‘annaya’ or elder brother is performed by Venkatesh Daggubati, a well-liked Telugu film star. Her rich household lives in Hyderabad reportedly, however their residence appears to be like like a big farmhouse model villa that might even be in Lonavala. Simply earlier than we journey to the hinterlands of Hyderabad, a banana leaf seems on display screen to announce ‘Welcome to the world of South India’ full with flower and coconut graphics. That this may occur in 2023 appears arduous to consider, however for this reason fact will all the time stay stranger than fiction.

So, minimize to Hyderabad ki haveli, which is residence to Bhagya’s Alok Nath-esque Annaya and his prolonged household who seem like they emerged from a Sooraj Barjatya fantasy. They put on vibhuti and kumkum, have a good time native festivals, and intersperse Telugu dialogues with accented Hindi. Poor Rohini Hattangdi appears to be like apologetic for being part of this reductive mess the place ‘Balaji Balaji’ blares loudly within the background when the Telugu household prays. Their final title is conveniently Gundamaneni, which Salman reduces to Gunda in an try to scare the villain.

However to look at grown males approaching their sixties put on a white and gold ‘veshti’ and thrust their crotch repeatedly whereas singing about lifting their ‘lungi’ is nearly an excessive amount of to bear. Does one name these hip thrusts vulgar, juvenile, or asinine? It’s a real dilemma.

The Telugu talking of us aren’t all cute bunnies. There may be additionally a brilliant villain performed by Jagapathi Babu who’s, and I quote, a ‘psychopath and sadist’. So, males in Hyderabad are both candy or they’re nasty. There isn’t any different possibility. There’s a pan-Indian collaboration within the villainy too. The Telugu villain has a Haryanvi counterpart who’s as a lot of a stereotype. There may be additionally a legendary Rowdy Anna who turned silent after being violent for a very long time. No surprises about who that’s, as a result of how can a well-liked male actor not be allowed to bask in mindless violence and aggression?

The desperation to woo audiences from the southern states is so robust, it leaves you feeling equal components sorry and disgusted. The movies in varied south Indian languages, whether or not KGF, Pushpa, Kantara and even RRR succeeded as a result of they remained rooted of their native sensibilities whereas incorporating universally understood themes and conflicts. A few of these movies did have a pan-Indian forged. However the Bollywood actors in these movies had been an natural a part of the narrative, not a bribe or incentive to draw audiences.

Dancing in veshtis and calling them lungis, portraying Hyderabad like a cute village from the 90’s, utilizing random Telugu phrases in songs which don’t have any significance to the characters or relevance to the film, and casting actors to money in on the pan-Indian development are just some of the numerous blunders dedicated by Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. No lungi can cover the filmmaker’s condescending angle in the direction of the viewers he’s trying to appease. That is precisely why Hindi movies have by no means historically performed effectively within the southern states. Why don’t we focus as a substitute on making movies with characters and emotional conflicts that anybody can relate to?

To cite Salman from the movie, “It’s not about energy, it’s about will energy”. Let’s put away the lungis, annas, and all different stereotypes and cease embarrassing ourselves on this method.