Salman or Chandan - the real hero of Bajrangi Bhaijan. Decide for yourself with this ode to both.

In the last couple of months, Salman Khan has become a regular occurrence in my life. It started with me wanting to see him just for Roopa’s sake (she has been his all time fan from childhood while I had always stuck to my loyalties for Shahrukh Khan), so when she came to Mumbai to visit me, we both stood outside Galaxy at the very strategic time of 2:00am (Of course we went to Mannat too but just as an interesting statistical point, there were 3 people outside  my hero’s house and 20 outside Sallu Bhai’s). I then caught myself supporting him openly on FB for his accident/ homicide case and got major flak from all my friends. And 2 days ago, my Uber driver turned out to be a really talkative fellow who told me all about Sallu Bhai’s Robin-hood-ness and I must confess, I was impressed. Raman, the driver said to me “Bhai se accha aadmi nahin hai Bollywood main. Mujhe woh log (muslims) acche nahin lagte par salman bhai alag hai. Woh sabke liye itna karte hain, junta unko kabhi jail jaane nahin degi” – quite an admirable ode to Robin Hood!!! Given my intrinsic belief in synchronicity, I am quite convinced that Salman Khan is occurring so often in my life because I am destined to meet him. As always, Shahrukh’s loss will be Salman’s gain ;)

With this belief and the release of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, came about the plan of watching the movie 1^st Day 1^st show (actually 2^nd show technically). And that’s how I revisited Chandan after 12 long years to be reminded of the joy of watching a Bollywood film on a single screen.

It just occurred to me – I belong to the single screen generation and boy, am I lucky!

Think about it; earlier it would be a grand plan to go to the movies – plan way ahead in time, stand in the single file long queues waiting for that small window to dole out your ticket to paradise, pick out your favorite dress even though you knew its going to be pitch dark inside and no one will notice you, the excitement of buying freshly baked popcorn and puff and the anticipation of a rat running over your feet if you were lucky enough to have got the last row seats.

Today you plan last minute coz honestly more often than not you know you will get tickets thanks to the multiplex concept, going in pyjamas is cool, Popcorn is just one of the many things you can dig into – all a different experience. Actually for a movie buff like me, watching any movie on the big screen is a thrill but I just got reminded that the charm of a single screen is so unique.

And I owe this reminder to Bhaijaan. Thank you Salman Bhai, for being you and making me go back to being me, after a long long time.

At 6:30pm on Friday, the entrance of Chandan was overflowing with frenzied crowd. Clearly they all must have felt the same synchronicity as I did and stood outside the theatre waiting for Bhai to turn up instead of going inside to watch him on the big screen. The excitement was electric. Kabir Khan, the director turned up to cheer the crowd but according to the watchman, Bhai would come only a day or two later and for a second I caught myself actually contemplating if I should watch the movie again over the weekend. Of course as soon I started watching the film, I realized there is no way I can watch this twice, even though it would mean I won’t fulfill my destiny of meeting Salman Khan for the time being.

The movie is average. Salman was not his typical dabangg self but was being very human – the whole film revolved around him reuniting an adorable little Pakistani girl with her parents. No body-shody, not too many fight sequences, not too many break-record dialogues and no dance steps that will rule youngistan for the next few months. And yet I would rate the movie as top notch. Why? Because I was sensible enough to watch it in Chandan.

The first time I got real goose bumps was when Salman got into his first fight. The camera did a great job of the build-up (though in reality there was very little of the real fight). The camera panned from one villain to the other in slow-mo, the music kept rising with every move and the crowd – oh my god, the crowd was screaming like we were all on a roller coaster as it goes up, readying itself for the real ride. As soon as the camera zoomed in on Salman, his eyes swelled, became watery, formed into a tear drop that slowly meandered its way to his eye lashes to plan its drop down his rock solid cheeks – the crowd held tight to their seats, throats almost parched, readying themselves for the roller coaster to do that thrilling drop. The music crescendo-ed and as Salman kicked, the theatre went berserk with screams and after that all one felt was the twists and turns of a really fast moving roller coaster and hoots through the entire sequence. What an experience!

And this was the recurring feeling throughout the film as it reminded you what a star Salman Khan is. Quick review of the film – it was a really simple random plot, Kareena was non existent (actually I don’t know why she signed up for the film or maybe she did it for Salman), music was very average and obviously common sense had to take a back seat. Salman Khan looked quite massive, in a not very nice way but then he will always look drop dead gorgeous because he is Salman Khan. Nawazuddin was brilliant, as he always is and the big rockstar was the latest entrant to the Bollywood fraternity, the little Harshaali Malhotra. I liked the first half as much as I liked the second half, contrary to popular sentiment but I missed the real Salman through the entire movie. What the story did not do for him was made up for through his screen presence. I thought his screen presence was very well captured and presented throughout the film. Power screamed out of Salman’s every facial expression, his body language. The screen really sizzled up each time he said or did anything or maybe my feedback is colored by the fact that the crowd’s excitement in Chandan made you imagine more than there really was. After all there was not a moment when the crowd did not go crazy as Salman talked, as Salman walked, as he smiled or as he frowned. I loved it!

This 2 star movie becomes 4 stars depending on whether you watch it in a multiplex or a single screen. In fact I asked this friend in Delhi how she liked the movie and she was ho-hum about it and said meekly It was Ok. Of course no prizes for guessing that she watched the film in PVR. Would I watch it again? No. But would I watch all Salman Khan movies in Chandan going forward. Hell Yeah!! A star is what people make of him and last evening was my true Mumbai experience of frenzied stardom.