Jai Ho

What do you expect in a Salman Khan movie? If this question was asked of a focus group, one answer would always be a shirtless fight sequence and in the climax of Jai Ho, the audience was chanting, “Shirt Utaar! Shirt Utaar! Shirt Utaar!” and our hero gladly complies in a matter of a few seconds.  Totally awesome!!!

If you expected that Jai Ho will have the typical Salman Khan dialogues then you would be bang on correct.  We have the likes of, “Agar koi bhi kuttagiri kin a, toh mera bhai tujhe kutte ki jagah khada nahin karega. Kutta banake chhod dega” and this is not Bhai.  This is Bhen (sister).  Tabu Bhen!!! For other vignettes, watch the trailer.

But the director is one Sohail Khan and so the movie has to flirt with the cheesy, corny and slapstick.  Thank goodness, it is limited to flirtation and nothing beyond.  So other than a line or 2 here and there like a 10 year old boy saying being called “chhota chooha” or a sleazy same pinch on pink underwear masked through a 4 year old girl, we are not tortured too much.

The good part about Jai Ho is that unlike the escapist movies that have little or no purpose (read Chennai Express / Dhoom 3), Jai Ho has a few messages.  There is one about eye donation somewhere in between.  There is one about, “One man CAN make a difference”.  The main one though is a direct pick up from Catherine Ryan Hyde’s 1999 book – Pay it Forward.

If someone does something good to you, don’t just say “Thank You”.  Do something good to 3 more people instead.  Don’t pay it back.  Pay it Forward.  The concept was adapted into a superb movie of the same name starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osmont in 2000.  Sohail Khan has given us the same story – but with all the masala and hoopla that makes Salman Khan.

The fact remains that our populace, can understand the message only when portrayed in a colourful manner.  If only, our makers also start paying attention to execution; to the finer details that make a movie really good and not just entertaining.  Jai Ho could have been a superb movie.  Instead it lands up being a below par one with a great message.  I sincerely hope that the message doesn’t get lost in the fireworks that Bhai has to offer.

Like most movies that feature Bhai, there is nothing to look forward to, in any department but for fight sequence choregraphy.  Salman Khan fans will have a field day.  Non Salman Khan fans…. Erm… do they exist? How can you not love the man? To me, the fan following was perfectly captured by two 60+ aunties who were hobbling along to the theatre and talking fondly of him as if he was their son.

There are many things atrocious about Bhai but what makes his movies a success and his fan following a cult can be studied to no end.  Watch Jai Ho for sure – not necessarily on screen.  And don’t forget to take back the message of Paying it Forward.  You may just about make a difference to someone somewhere.  5 on 10 – only for the message that it attempts to pass on.

Watch the trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7xFJVWbMlQ&hd=1