Bharat Review: An Insipid Tale of Monotony!

Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bharat (an official adaptation of the South Korean film Ode to My Father) stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles with popular TV comedian Sunil Grover and Jackie Shroff as the supporting cast in a 167-minute narrative mess. Being the only major Hindi movie releasing for the next 15 odd days, Bharat enjoys a long holiday weekend, so, it is quite imminent that it will score serviceably at the opening weekend box office.

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The storyline of the film kicks off during the time of the partition with the family of Bharat (Salman Khan) abandoning their home in Lahore, Pakistan because of the religious wars raging in and out of the country. But, amidst all the chaos, Bharat’s father Gautam (Jackie Shroff) go missing and the rest of the family crowd into Hindustan, and starts up a new beginning. The remainder of the movie explores the journey of Bharat from age 8 to 70, his different phases in life and the obstacles he overcame to keep his father’s promise.

With quite an intriguing hook, the tagline of the movie reads “Journey of a Man and a Nation Together!” Which, on paper looks appealing and is very much an easy selling point to any moviegoer. Although the movie sticks to the previously mentioned tagline by narrating the storyline in a segregated fashion, it is predominantly unclear with its approach. The narrative, for the most part, is muddled up with multiple expressions and doesn’t even remotely understand whether it wants to be a comedy, or explore the parents and son relationship, or address the tragic side of the India-Pakistan partition. However, if you want to make a claim that this nearly 3-hour movie is attempting to impress a wide variety of audience by bringing together multiple genres to make it universally loved, then, it, by and large, failed to do so in every aspect.

Sunil Grover, who is a gifted performer and proved his mettle on multiple different occasions falls flat and underwhelms with cringe-filled humor, and unnecessary comedic bits. Disha Patani, who unfortunately was only utilized to flaunt her shredded body in a four-minute song is a terrible missed opportunity. Nora Fatehi’s character is just another example of the randomness of multiple characters in the film who serve no purpose at all. On the other hand, Salman Khan acts, walks and talks in the same way we saw him doing for the entirety of his career. His character is designed to overcome all odds in style and cruise through them with swagger and he fulfills his duties with ease. Katrina Kaif’s character, Kumud Raina had a different touch, unlike the normal roles we’ve seen her portray over the years. She, to a great degree, was fairly good with her performance and made the sassy, brave, pit boss attributes of her character likeable.

Overall, one of the primary problems of Bharat is that it is an insipid film from beginning till the end. It invoked zero emotions and felt flat whenever it is trying to make me laugh, cry or motivate. It is just another typical Bhai movie where everything is just set up conveniently to make him look heroic even while fighting a bunch of hooligans rocking a grey beard and making a group of sea pirates dance to Amitabh Bachchan classics. “A Journey of Monotony and Mindlessness Together!”

Rating – 2/5 | Grade – C

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