The holy month of Ramadan has come to an end with the fast broken & the new moon sighted. So on this auspicious occasion of Eid Al Fitr, I would like to wish Allah's Rahmat on all my fellow brings for a peaceful & prosperous life. Apart from hogging on the goodies, one of the indispensable ways of celebrating a festival is watching a movie & when it comes to Bollywood, this day is invariably locked down for Salman. In accordance with the usual trend, Salman presents "Tubelight" this year hoping to add further light to the festivities. Hmm... but will it be able in the same league as his previous blockbusters???
Based on Alejandro Monteverde's "Little Boy", the tale is set against the backdrop of the Indo-China war in 1962. The protagonists were two brothers who lived in the misty town of Kumaon nestled in the hills. Laxman Singh (Salman Khan) is a man child (more along the lines of Forest Gump) who endeared to one & all due to his innocence & slow witted nature which gave him the nickname "Tubelight". He was looked after by his protective younger brother, Bharat (Sohail Khan) & life seemed to move along peacefully until war broke out between the two neighbouring nations. As it was the need of the hour, there was large induction of youth into the army & Bharat happened to be one of them. Even though reluctant to leave his brother, Bharat heads into the war zone. Since he feared for his brother's well being, Laxman makes efforts to bring his brother back home. But will the two brothers ever meet again???
After the bombastic success of "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", Kabir Khan has yet again joined hands with Salman for their third collaboration. If "Little Boy" had a 8 year old kid as the protagonist then Kabir Khan used his creative freedom & financial acumen to make it into a guy in his early 50s. The primary flaw here is that there isnt a credible thread to the script & it's all about Laxman putting his faith to the test (except that it came across as rather trivial). In such a scenario, the 136 minute long movie tests our patience which should have been taken care of by Rameshwar Bhagat. On the brighter side, I did like Pritham's tracks which was in sync with the mood created while Aseem Mishra has done a decent job with the visuals.
There is no doubt that Salman excels when he plays characters which exudes innocence & has a heart of gold. However, over here there were more emotionally charged sequences & he seemed rather inept at it; though we will still take a liking for his character's simplicity. Salman's scenes with Matin Rey Tenga worked out pretty well & the boy has given an impressive performance. Surprisingly, Sohail Khan has done a fine job in the few scenes that he appeared. The late Om Puri, Zhu Zhu, Zeeshan Ayub etc have all done justice to their parts. Shah Rukh's cameo as a magician was fantastic as he fitted the character perfectly.
Verdict: The weekend got off to a great start for Salman as "Sultan" won the best action movie award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. However, he wouldnt have got a similar high from "Tubelight" as the opening day collection was one of the lowest for his Eid releases. Well it's definitely not surprising due to the reasons mentioned earlier. In short, it is yakeen to fall well short of expectations!!!
Rating: 1.25/5
Regards...Ben
After the bombastic success of "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", Kabir Khan has yet again joined hands with Salman for their third collaboration. If "Little Boy" had a 8 year old kid as the protagonist then Kabir Khan used his creative freedom & financial acumen to make it into a guy in his early 50s. The primary flaw here is that there isnt a credible thread to the script & it's all about Laxman putting his faith to the test (except that it came across as rather trivial). In such a scenario, the 136 minute long movie tests our patience which should have been taken care of by Rameshwar Bhagat. On the brighter side, I did like Pritham's tracks which was in sync with the mood created while Aseem Mishra has done a decent job with the visuals.
There is no doubt that Salman excels when he plays characters which exudes innocence & has a heart of gold. However, over here there were more emotionally charged sequences & he seemed rather inept at it; though we will still take a liking for his character's simplicity. Salman's scenes with Matin Rey Tenga worked out pretty well & the boy has given an impressive performance. Surprisingly, Sohail Khan has done a fine job in the few scenes that he appeared. The late Om Puri, Zhu Zhu, Zeeshan Ayub etc have all done justice to their parts. Shah Rukh's cameo as a magician was fantastic as he fitted the character perfectly.
Verdict: The weekend got off to a great start for Salman as "Sultan" won the best action movie award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. However, he wouldnt have got a similar high from "Tubelight" as the opening day collection was one of the lowest for his Eid releases. Well it's definitely not surprising due to the reasons mentioned earlier. In short, it is yakeen to fall well short of expectations!!!
Rating: 1.25/5
Regards...Ben
