Tubelight

One of those movies you wait for every year, months seem ages for those fanatics and comes forth at a time of cherishing and celebrating, yes you guessed it right, it is the Salman Khan starrer film that more often than not releases every Eid and accentuates the mood of celebration.

This year it was Tubelight, directed by the Bajrangi Bhaijaan Director Kabir Khan. As the title suggests, this movie revolves around the character Laxman Bisht, a childlike person trapped in the body of a grown up man. Although the objective of the film was to project Laxman as a man with little wit and slow grasping power, correctly as what tubelight is sarcastically meant, yet with its portrayal in the movie, it, more often than not, seemed as an immature demented gump with little intelligence and even lesser self-confidence. Laxman is, time and again, belittled, degraded, looked down upon and scorned by the people thus introducing the character played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, yet his brother Bharat (Sohail Khan) shows utmost confidence in him, who believes that his brother is at par with everyone and will be able to do everything, reassuring Laxman repeatedly by asking him “Kya tu yeh kar sakta hai?”

The director Kabir Khan has tried to touch the emotional chords of people, with emanating sympathy out of the audience every time Laxman is sneered at condescendingly, when you witness him fighting his battles alone, without the support of his brother, who on the other hand is at the border fighting the brutal Indo-China war. You do not get to see much of the war and the film, primarily and majorly, encompasses the scenes of Salman Khan, his antics and his efforts to gather himself together from the fact that his brother wasn’t with him and there were chances that he might not return from the war, his efforts to battle the denigration he had always faced and continued even as a grown up. In the process of gaining the self-confidence and self-assurance, the film often goes a little overboard when Laxman takes the adage of moving the mountains, well, quite literally.

He is endearing and adorable and you will probably love the character for his naiveté and simpleton attitude. There is also this character of a small Chinese kid named Guo, who had shifted with his mother Liling. They were born and brought up in India, yet the facial characteristics and the fact that they had the Chinese origin made every Indian their stark rivals, with people trying to burn their house down and assault them.

The late Om Puri’s character plays a vital role in boosting Laxman to gain self esteem and increase his confidence manifolds. He convinces Laxman to befriend the foe and shake hands with Liling and Guo.

The cinematographer Aseem Mishra has managed to capture such picturesque mesmerizing visuals of the locales, while also justifying the war scenes, howsoever many they may be.

Besides it doesn’t require me to state the most obvious fact about how magnificently and convincingly Salman has managed to pull off this character and not once can you point out any flaw in his performance, for every scene was better than the previous. His presence is so powerful and impactful on-screen that it is difficult to take your eyes off him in a scene.

While things were pretty good and kept the film sailing, an aggregate evaluation and the later analysis of my watching experience would make me give it 3 out of 5 stars.