Salman Khan’s ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ review: The real film only starts post-interval

Bajrangi Bhaijaan review: The chief purpose of Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan is for you to surrender to disbelief and enjoy the familiar antics of Salman

Up for a Bollywood-style fairytale? One in which two bitter foes come together over a revved-up set-piece involving India and Pakistan, flag-waving patriots, bigots-turned-pacifists, an adorable little girl, and a superstar named Salman Khan? Phir bhaiyya, and behena, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ le le re. The fact that the film would be a highly-anticipated Eid releases was known. But no one could have anticipated that the stormy relationship between the two nations would be a Page One newspaper headline on the very day the film is out: the border is burning, and tensions are riding high. That’s in the real world. Just the right time for a film to tell us how it can be, in an alternate universe. Why not dive into the reel world in which the boil can be reduced to a simmer, and a simper-and-smile, piggybacking on the one and only Bhaijaan, who is in search of redemption himself.