How Salman Khan's Munnabhai turns into Aparichit in Jai Ho

In an attempt to deliver a social message through a masala entertainer, director Sohail Khan ends up making it too heavy. Besides, Salman Khan's character is more like Aparichit than Munnabhai.

Salman Khan's Jai Ho was touted as having a social message. However, going by the film's performance at BO, his fans apparently like him better in no-holds-barred action films – a la Dabangg – where he fights the bad guys but does not sermonise.





Instead of being the entertainer/samaritan from Sanjay Dutt's Munnabhai, Salman Khan's Jai looks more like Ambi (Shankar's Aparichit).

When Jai Ho begins with dialogues like, "tum log coolie ho na? Mujhe bhi utha lo," one expects a well-intentioned entertainer. This whole attempt of delivering a social message through a masala entertainer reminds one of Sanjay Dutt's Munnabhai series. Only, Sohail Khan fails to pull off a Rajkumar Hirani.





While Hirani succeeded in marrying message with masala, Jai Ho is too heavy on the message. So much so that audience members started repeating the oft-used dialogue in the film before a character would say it yet again, "Thank you mat bolo. Agar aapko lagta hai maine aapki madad ki hai to teen logo ki madad karna aur unse kehna ki wo teen logo ki madad karein."

Moreover, Salman does not appear like a typical do-gooder. Instead, he comes across as an extremely violent person who is not answerable for his actions once his buttons are pushed. This character reminds one of S Shankar's Tamil film Anniyan (Hindi-dubbed version Aparichit). There is a scene in Jai Ho where Salman Khan stands silently, listening to taunts and jibes of Danny Dengzogpa while Tabu looks on. It is only when Tabu calls out to Jai that he reacts, and violently! They should have certainly named the film Mental.

There are, however, some face-saving dialogues. A cop quips to another in a traffic jam caused due to the security of a politican's daughter, "Bina soche samjhe chunoge to bhugto (You should suffer because you chose your leaders without a thought)."



Jai Ho, however, gears up in action scenes for which Salman is justly renowned. Bigg Boss contestant Santosh Shukla, who also features in the movie, impresses with his skills in these action-packed sequences.



The shirt-ripping scene, too, makes one's heart skip a beat. More so, because you see a well-maintained physique that Chulbul Pandey took away.

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