Drishyam review: A promising murder mystery made weak by Ajay Devgn

A crime has been committed, but for those who know what’s happened, it doesn’t really feel criminal. For those trying to prove it, there just isn’t enough evidence. This is true for the story in as well as the story of Drishyam.
Drishyam, a Hindi remake of Jeethu Joseph's Malayalam film, opens with a declaration that it is based on an original story by Joseph. This is clearly designed to make Ekta Kapoor and anyone who has read Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X choke on their popcorn.
Kapoor bought the rights to remake Higashino’s fantastic murder mystery in Hindi. Meanwhile, far away from Kapoor’s Andheri office, Joseph adapted the novel’s plot for a Malayalam film starring Mohanlal, and set it in an Indian village. Kapoor sent a legal notice, Joseph claimed it was his story. And because his is a smart adaptation, Joseph is the one who gets to do the slow-mo stride while Kapoor’s legal notices lie defeated by the wayside. Everyone knows the story of Drishyam isn’t really original, and yet no one can prove it because Joseph’s version is just original enough.
In the Hindi film directed by Nishikant Kamat, Ajay Devgn gets the onscreen hero’s walk. He gets it because his character in the film, Vijay Salgaonkar – like Joseph – tells a good story. This really is meta.

Ajay Devgn in Drishyam. Image from Facebook.

Vijay is a cable operator in Pondolim, a fictitious village in Goa. He has two daughters, a pretty wife, an eatery where the owner gives him credit, and a two-wheeler that lets Vijay vroom through the picturesque Konkan countryside. It’s a pleasantly dull life. When Vijay’s elder daughter Anju (Ishita Dutta) is contacted by a boy she met while on a school trip, the first tear appears in this picture-perfect world. He has a video of her showering and he’s more than happy to blackmail her with it.
You may wonder why this obnoxious chap isn’t afraid of being exposed for threatening Anju. After all, her father is Ajay Devgn, sorry, Vijay Salgaonkar. There’s a very good reason – Little Mister Blackmail is the son of the Inspector General of police. Take that, Daddy Dearest.
This premise is actually Joseph’s greatest triumph and the reason that the plagiarism claims don’t stick legally. There may be unmistakable similarities between Higashino’s story and Joseph’s – in both, a man convinces the police that he’s committed a crime that he hasn’t actually committed; takes the blame for a crime someone else has committed; and the mystery hinges upon an elaborate sequence of fake alibis that the police struggle to dismantle.
However, the big difference between The Devotion of Suspect X and Drishyam is that there’s a social commentary that’s identifiably Indian in the latter – the cable operator’s daughter has no chance of getting protection from the IG’s son. No one under these circumstances would think there’s any point being honest because the entire police establishment will come crashing down upon the Salgaonkars if they point fingers at the IG’s son.
As it turns out, this is exactly what happens when Anju’s blackmailer disappears and IG Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) becomes convinced that the Salgaonkars have something to do with her son going missing. Unlike Higashino’s professor, she has no logical reason for her hypothesis, but she’s the IG and a gut instinct is all the reason needed to unleash hell upon Vijay and his family.
This is the point at which one should feel scared for the Salgaonkars, but when you look at the screen and see Devgn, thoroughly expressionless and convinced of his awesomeness, you never really fear for him. He’s the hero. It’s no surprise that he’s able to outwit everyone around him. The only way Devgn isn’t true to type is that Vijay gets beaten up instead of being the one who throws people and punches around.
Joseph may be a gifted in the art of adaptation, but his original elements weaken the original story. Throwing all realism and logic to the winds, Drishyam presents police cruelty that’s not just brutal, but also stupid. People are beaten up in what appears to be the IG’s living room (helpfully cleared of furniture. Or maybe she’s gone for the Spartan look because she regularly interrogates suspects in there?). A policeman thinks nothing of hitting a child and leaving visible bruising upon the teenaged Anju who is, incidentally, still a minor. That's serious abuse of power. Even though there are witnesses — including journalists with cameras — to the Salgaonkars emerging from police interrogation with bleeding faces, the police are unconcerned about the consequences of custodial violence.
There’s also Joseph’s attempt to pander to the stereotype of Mother India. It says nothing good about contemporary society that in 1957, being Mother India meant having the courage and integrity to shoot your law-breaking son, while in the 2000s it means using your power to victimise someone you think may have hurt the sleazeball fruit of your loins.
This brings us to one of Drishyam’s greatest strengths and critical flaws: IG Meera Deshmukh. You can almost feel the relief that surges through the audience when Tabu as Meera makes her entry. By this time, we’ve spent about an hour watching Devgn trying to act, Shriya Saran trying to look old and a host of minor characters trying to be convincing. With the singular exception of Kamlesh Sawant, who plays the villainous Inspector Gaitonde with wonderful panache, everyone fails.
Devgn has never been known for his acting skills and he is thoroughly miscast as Vijay, who is meant to be a nondescript everyman. It’s because this character is so unremarkable that no one imagines he’d come up with the brilliant and elaborate charade that he does. In the Malayalam original, Mohanlal manages this ably. He plays a bumbling simpleton initially, keeping the audience entertained with silly comic scenes that endear us to him. This makes the later scenes that slowly reveal his calculating genius truly engaging. Devgn, in contrast, hulks around and saves the victimised right from the very beginning, because he and the director are intent upon reminding us that Devgn is the star. Drishyam will make everyone look at Rohit Shetty with respect because Kamat’s inability to get a performance out of Devgn makes you realise how well Shetty has used the actor in the Singham series.
Devgn is bland but just about tolerable when he bums around as Vijay, doing his version of working for a living (reading the newspaper, chatting with random people and watching TV). However, there are few sights more stomach churning than the scene in which, inspired by Sunny Leone, Devgn’s Vijay looks romantically into his wife’s eyes. Saran looks traumatised, Devgn seems to be either short-sighted or drunk, and the audience is left wishing they had a fast forward button.
The only thing worse than Devgn's acting is Drishyam’s background score, which tries to reflect various moods, but ends up sounding like a tacky medley of supposedly comic and suspenseful sound effects.
Between bad acting and a slow pace, the first half of Drishyam is one of those rare situations where you may actually find yourself wishing there was an item number. At least that would wake us up. So when Tabu, beautiful and charismatic as ever, finally enters the frame, we’re all ready to dance on the aisles.
Unfortunately, Tabu can’t save her character from falling into the pit that Joseph has dug for it with his script. Meera is the top cop that no one ever wants to encounter. Her missing son takes top priority over all other cases. She doesn’t care about rules, has no qualms about ignoring the law, is pro-torture and looks absolutely gorgeous while ordering her minions to beat the crap out of entirely innocent people (including a little girl). This character has the makings of an amazing villain, but of course we can’t have such a thing in a woman.
And so, to ensure our heart bleeds for Meera, after every scene of police brutality that she orders and watches (without a flicker of remorse), she weeps into her husband’s shirtfront because she’s a mother, looking for her son. (Cue in Mother India theme.) More disturbingly, her civilian husband is not only there to witness all the interrogations and every official meeting Meera has with her colleagues, he actually tells her off – in front of her juniors – when he thinks she’s going overboard. So on one hand, we have Vijay, standing tall as the alpha protector, confronting Meera, the beta momma. There's never any doubt about who's the stronger contender and it's only because Tabu really can do magic with her eyes that Meera feels formidable in a few rare moments.
If Kamat had the gumption (and the freedom) to focus on story instead of possible box office returns, Drishyam could have been a good film. If Kamat had cast an actor instead of a star, then Vijay could have been a fantastic role. Had the director been faithful to what the story demanded – instead of trying to predict what the audience won’t accept – then Vijay’s wife could have been characterised by her maturity rather than her eyeliner and the saris that Saran is obviously uncomfortable wearing. Meera could have been a worthy adversary to Vijay, instead of being a senior police officer who seems to be a little crazed and gets her knuckles rapped by her husband while at work.
In a murder mystery, it isn’t a bad thing if the best scene comes right at the end, with the big reveal. However, if the audience doesn’t really care for any of the characters and if the only reaction the scene elicits is delighted relief because the film is finally over, then the storytelling has failed. Handicapped by its stars, Kamat ends up making a decent film that doesn’t live up to its potential, lacks wow moments and seems too long at 163 minutes. And that’s a shame, because there’s a good story and an intelligent adaptation hidden out of sight in Drishyam.

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Kabir Khan gets into verbal spat with journalist about terrorism at 'Phantom' trailer launch

Mumbai: Director Kabir Khan got into a heated argument with a journalist, "offended" by certain comments of his, at the trailer launch of Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif-starrer Phantom on Saturday.

Kabir Khan. Image from Twitter.

Kabir expressed unhappiness with the mindset here that terrorists are directly coming from Pakistan and said this was not true. "People to people friendship can't happen as long as these extremist elements exist in either country. And these elements have to be eliminated for both the countries to get along peacefully."
A journalist took exception to this statement and shouted at Kabir, who shouted back at the journalist.
"First do not talk to me like that. I do not appreciate it. Come over here, let me see your face and have a normal conversation. Do not get into all these talks.
"If you're getting into screaming, shouting and frothing, then I'm not going to get into this discussion," he said.
The director however cooled down more and said: "If you make this discourse a bit more civil, then I'm ready to talk to you. Why are you screaming like that? Calm down, have some water."
The irate journalist was repeatedly asking him to identify "the terrorist elements in India" but Kabir stressed he did not use the word "terrorist" but "extremist" for such elements.

From a village in UP to Bollywood's finest, this is Nawazuddin Siddiqui's story

The 'invisible' man was in the audience.
On stage, a woman grappled with the choices she’d made. “Yeh kaisi uljhan?” she asks. The audience watched as the dilemmas unfolded and he, the invisible man, was among them, submerged in darkness, wondering if this was the world for which he was destined.
Vijaydan Detha's play Uljhan is about a woman who falls in love with a feral man and leaves her husband to live with him. It was while watching a performance of Uljhan in New Delhi’s Mandi House, years ago, that Nawazuddin Siddiqui's tryst with acting began. Today, he is pitched as the anti-hero, a method actor, and someone who paddles comfortably in the mainstream and alternative cinema in India, holding his own in the presence of Salman Khan (not once, but twice, in Kick and Bajrangi Bhaijaan).
And now the trailers of Manjhi – The Mountain Man have been released.

 
The 'invisible' man was in the audience.
On stage, a woman grappled with the choices she’d made. “Yeh kaisi uljhan?” she asks. The audience watched as the dilemmas unfolded and he, the invisible man, was among them, submerged in darkness, wondering if this was the world for which he was destined.
Vijaydan Detha's play Uljhan is about a woman who falls in love with a feral man and leaves her husband to live with him. It was while watching a performance of Uljhan in New Delhi’s Mandi House, years ago, that Nawazuddin Siddiqui's tryst with acting began. Today, he is pitched as the anti-hero, a method actor, and someone who paddles comfortably in the mainstream and alternative cinema in India, holding his own in the presence of Salman Khan (not once, but twice, in Kick and Bajrangi Bhaijaan).
And now the trailers of Manjhi – The Mountain Man have been released.
Siddiqui plays a man who pits himself against nature, a relentless mountain. Based on a true story – of a man who chipped away at a mountain for 20 years, fuelled by his love – Siddiqui is in his element in this film. “That's the toughest role so far. I stayed in the village for one and a half months,” says Siddiqui of Dashrath Manjhi.
Short, lean, dark-complexioned and a cigarette dangling from his dark chapped lips, Siddiqui is complete antithesis of a Bollywood hero, and not just in terms of his appearance. He has no pedigree – Siddiqui is from a village in Uttar Pradesh and comes from a poor family. It took him 14 long years to be noticed. There were days when he could have given up. Now he travels business class, is chased by the media, and gets invited to events where other speakers include Prime Minister
Back in 2007, Siddiqui was noticed in Black Friday, written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. This was followed by films like New York, Peepli Live, Kahaani, DevD, Paan Singh Tomar, Firaaq, Patang, Chittagong and Miss Lovely.
At the 65th International Cannes Film Festival, Kashyap’s two part Gangs of Wasseypur and Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely, both starring Siddiqui, were applauded. Finally, everyone noticed this thin, short man who may have been from nowhere in particular, but was intent upon becoming someone significant in Bollywood. There is much ugliness in the Indian film industry. There is intense competition and there are petty fallouts. He is still learning his way. “Even if you fall, you must hit the floor with grace,” says Siddiqui.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui. AFP.

In one scene in Uljhan, the woman cuts the feral man's hair, his beard; she teaches him how to speak, read and write, to literally stand on two legs. The man goes on to conquer kingdoms. She becomes pregnant with his child, but the feral man's desires have grown beyond her. He is attracted to others. The woman wonders why she even made him the man that he is now and left her world to be with him. The play asks us to consider the ambition and drive that characterizes so much of what defines success. Siddiqui has no dilemma on this account. “Desire knows no limits,” he says. “For myself, I only need two rotis and maybe a cigarette after that. That's all.”
He doesn't want to be inaccessible. But there are certain things an actor must do, he says. “An actor must remain exclusive,” is Siddiqui’s conclusion from his recently-discovered stardom. Now, though, Siddiqui enjoys a kind of exposure that is perhaps unthinkable for someone with his beginnings. He has graced the pages of fashion magazines, dressed in ornate suits, and looking every bit an aristocrat.
On the sets of The Lunchbox, a few passersby called him a junior artist. He only smiled and corrected their misconception: “I am the leading man.” It isn’t a presumptuous statement from the actor. Siddiqui is quick to explain that he had signed The Lunchbox before Gangs of Wasseypur.
He learned to give autographs -- at least the way stars do – only in 2013. “At first I used to give my signature,” he says. “Then I saw others writing other things like 'love' and 'best' and now I know.” His autographs are disjointed. Words do not follow trajectory. They are often scattered and confused. Like the actor. His rise in Bollywood has challenged longstanding notions of who can be an actor.
That play Uljhan made him want to be an actor even though at 5 feet 6 inches, he didn't fit the bill. He is dark, and skinny. No toned muscles, no fabulous abs. During those years when he lingered around, hoping for small roles for a few hundred rupees in commercials, he was mostly roped in to enact a victim, a thug, or sometimes just to fill space. In most such roles, he would try and avert his face when the camera panned to him, because he desired so much more.
He was born in Budhana, in Muzzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. His parents were poor and the roof dripped during the monsoon. He hadn't thought of acting then. Those weren't options available to the poor, he says. All that mattered was getting out, finding a job and leading a life of less deprivation. Siddiqui attended college, studied pharmacy, and could have been a chemist – but for Uljhan. That's when he decided to go to National School of Drama in Delhi.
Once, his father saw Siddiqui getting beaten up in a film (Munnabhai MBBS). He switched off the television and called his son. In their small village, it was shameful that all Siddiqui had amounted to was getting beaten up in front of the world.
Today though, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is being celebrated.
For years, he would act in solitude. Not even in front of a mirror. For six years, when he had a lot of time to himself, he would try and act in his room for hours. “I have never acted in front of the mirror,” he says. “When you look into the mirror, it destroys the inner self. You only see the outer and it distances you removes you from the inner,” he says. In life, he had to learn to dare the mirror. “In the beginning there's frustration, then there is depression, and then there is nothing. Nothing affects me,” he says.
At Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi, during a photo shoot with Delhi-based designer Arjun Saluja, Siddiqui effortlessly slips into the character of someone who has come to the pilgrimage site to seek unity with self. Saluja stands on the side, marveling at the ease with which the actor owns the fashionable ensembles, inspired by shrines and spaces sacred to Saluja.

Sing along: Varun Grover decodes the lyrics to Masaan's 'Mann Kasturi' and 'Tu Kisi Rail Si'

Film still from Masaan

Editors' note: Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan is set in Varanasi and one of the ways that the film explores the complex mix of tradition and modernity that is Varanasi, is through its soundtrack. In case you were curious about the lyrics and their meaning, screenwriter and lyricist Varun Grover has helpfully translated of two of the standout tracks from Masaan, complete with explanatory notes. Enjoy!
MANN KASTURI

Film still from Masaan

Editors' note: Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan is set in Varanasi and one of the ways that the film explores the complex mix of tradition and modernity that is Varanasi, is through its soundtrack. In case you were curious about the lyrics and their meaning, screenwriter and lyricist Varun Grover has helpfully translated of two of the standout tracks from Masaan, complete with explanatory notes. Enjoy!
MANN KASTURI
Mann kasturi jag dasturi
Baat hui naa puri re
Mann kasturi
Khoje apni gandh na paawey
The heart is like the Kasturi, that doesn’t get closure.
Kasturi is the musk deer that goes mad searching for the scent of musk around it, not realizing that the essence comes from within.
Paat na paya meetha paani
Or-chhor ki doori re
Mann kasturi
Even the purest of things, i.e. sweet river water,
Couldn't bridge the gap of this side and that side.
(Varun Grover: The intent being that even Ganges can't fill the divides between castes and genders that we have created in our society.)
Khoje apni gandh na paawey
Chaadar ka paiband na paawey
[The musk-deer] Searches for own essence, but can't find it
Can't find the pattern for the torn sheet of existence
(VG: Paiband : A patchwork. Chaadar: A sheet of cloth. Kabir used chaadar as a metaphor for the mortal body.)
Bikhrey-bikhrey chhand saa tahley
Dohon mein ye bandh na paawey
Naachey ho ke phirki lattu
Khojey apni ghoori re
Mann kasturi
Moves around like a broken verse,
Can't be composed into poetry
Revolves like a lattu
Looking for its own axis
Umar ki ginti haath na aai
Purkho ne ye baat batai
Ulta kar ke dekh sakey to
Umber bhi hai gehri chhai

Security beefed up outside Salman Khan's residence following tweets defending Yakub Memon

Mumbai: Security on Sunday was beefed up outside Salman Khan's residence in suburban Bandra here following the Bollywood superstar's tweets defending Yakub Memon, the death row convict in 1993 Mumbai blast case, which have drawn severe flak from various quarters.
"We have tightened security outside Salman Khan's residence to prevent any untoward incident," DCP (detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni said.

Salman Khan. Firstpost

The 49-year-old actor said that an "innocent" is being hung for the crimes of his brother and the prime suspect in the 1993 bombings - Tiger Memon.
In a series of tweets last night, Salman had defended Yakub Memon.
"Get tiger hang him. Parade him not his brother (sic)," he tweeted.
"Been wanting to tweet Tis fr 3 days n was afraid to do so but it involves a man's n family. Don't hang brother hang tha lomdi (fox) who ran away (sic)," he tweeted.
"1 innocent man killed is killing the humanity," he said on Twitter.
Political parties in Maharashtra including Shiv Sena and BJP have condemned Salman's remarks.
Memon was the only convict in the case whose death penalty was upheld by the Supreme Court.
After his curative petition was dismissed, Memon has submitted a mercy petition to Maharashtra Governor. The President had earlier rejected his mercy petition.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan is Salman Khan's gift to bhakts this Eid

Over the past year, there’s been a lot of hand-wringing and fretting about how the rise of Hindutva and the growing tentacles of the RSS are stifling free speech and creativity. With Bajrangi Bhaijaan, this Friday’s big release, it’s time to put some of those fears to rest. Bollywood may be faced by challenges like censorship and a whimsical CBFC, but it’s got a few tricks up its sleeve.
For the second time this year, we’ve got a film in which the hero is a simple, golden-hearted, shakha-bred Hindu. Pavan Kumar Chaturvedi, aka Bajrangi of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, could well be the chaddi-buddy of Dum Laga ke Haisha’s Prem Prakash Tiwari. Like Prem, Pavan is also more of a man of action than intellect. Both have failed school multiple times, both are unemployed, both are losers and both men catch the attention of smart, pretty school teachers. Prem redeems himself by hoisting his wife on his back and racing across treacherous terrain in a race. Pavan does pretty much the same thing – only instead of his wife, he’s got a little girl riding him piggyback and the terrain is more expansive as Pavan goes across Pakistan’s desert, plains and then mountains.

Screengrab from YouTube

The message is clear: the women of North India are suckers for pecs and abs, and the shakha produces men who are studly, loyal and idiots. Eid Mubarak, bhakts.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan pokes much fun at Hindutva’s footsoldiers; more so than Dum Laga ke Haisha, which contained some delightful and subtle satire of the RSS and its ideology. Pavan is not only verging on illiterate, but the only occupation he has appears to be tugging gigantic Hanuman idols. Not quite a career with glowing prospects. There’s a fine line between stupidity and innocence, and most of the time, Pavan – who offers pranaam to random monkeys because they are, to him, symbols of Hanuman and therefore deserving of worship – is unmistakably on the stupid side. Even a six-year-old who has grown up in a remote village despairs at Pavan’s naiveté.
It’s almost as though Bollywood is subtly sticking its tongue out to those who want to censor Indian culture and popular entertainment. If all the right-wing wants are paeans to its awesomeness, Bollywood will deliver with heroes like Pavan and Prem, who get the girl and the audience’s sympathies, who are undeniably heroic; but who are equally undeniably, absolute idiots.
If there is a saving grace to this saffron-tinted hero, then it is that he’s not set in his ways like the others of his tribe. This is partly because he has a good heart and partly because he’s such an idiot that nothing – neither multiplication tables nor religious fundamentalism – registers. Pavan, like Prem, responds with his heart because there’s next to nothing in his head. As Pavan shows in his interaction with the Pakistan security forces, his stupidity overwhelms his instinct for self-preservation and at the root of the aforementioned lack of smarts is religious dogma.
Still, our hero is a good guy who can rise above all this pettiness. The film uses Pavan to rubbish the right-wing distaste for eating meat and pokes holes at the irrational suspicion cast by right-wing Hindus upon Muslims. The little girl in Bajrangi Bhaijaan isn’t an ambassador of Islam. She’s just a lost kid. When Pavan realises she’s a meat-eating Muslim – from Pakistan no less – that she’s a symbol of the enemy is less important to him than the fact that she tugs at his heartstrings. She’s cute and helpless and looks at him with wide-eyed adoration, which makes him feel powerful. She’s also the only person who doesn’t judge him for being a loser, and that’s enough. No wonder Pavan doesn’t think twice about choosing the little girl over his gorgeous girlfriend, Rasika, who loves and supports him but also makes it clear that she’s the one who wears the pants (and has the brain) in their relationship.
In many ways, the rise of this bhakt hero is a throwback to ye olde Bollywood, when sophisticated, posh heroines lost their hearts to heroes who were distinctly “low-class”. Instead of the driver or unemployed or generally unprivileged gent who won the heroine’s heart, today’s hero is the bhakt. He can only be redeemed through the love of a good woman or a good girl.
Rasika plays some role in making Pavan see the light as far as Hindutva is concerned, but the real eye-opener is the little girl, Munni. It’s almost as though writer V Vijayendra Prasad and director Kabir Khan (who has also written the film’s occasionally witty dialogues) decided that since talking to Hindutva trolls only leads to abusive arguments, it would make more sense to combat their brainwashing with silence and sweetness. So there’s Munni, mute and adorable and unwaveringly human, rather than being a blueprint for all things Muslim.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan casting director was worried about 'talkative' Harshali Malhotra during shoot

Harshali Malhotra and Salman Khan in Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

Mumbai: Child actor Harshaali Malhotra, who plays a mute girl in Salman Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan, has touched the hearts of viewers with her endearing performance. But she is extremely talkative in real life, says her mother.
"Harshaali never keeps quiet. During workshops, Mukesh (Chhabra, the casting director) used to tell me that he was worried how she could keep quiet," Harshaali's mother Kajal Malhotra said in an interaction with journalists.
"There is no difference in her as a person. The way she was earlier is exactly how she is now," she said, emphasizing how shooting schedules haven't affected Harshaali.
Shooting with a child is not only difficult for the filmmakers but also for the child.
"Whenever there was action or any high-pitched sound, she would get scared. But Salman (Khan) and Kabir (Khan) would take special efforts to ensure that she interacts with other co-stars by playing, after which she became comfortable during the shoot," Malhotra said.
Among the flood of compliments Harshaali's has received, one which deserves mention was when Farah Khan termed her "the find of the century".
The popularity Harshaali has received is there for everyone to see, but her mother says they will try to ensure that she balances studies and acting seamlessly.
"Whatever we'll decide for her career would obviously depend on the offers we receive, but we wouldn't prefer television very much," she said.

Director Kabir Khan invites politicians to watch Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Mumbai: Director Kabir Khan, Salman Khan's sister Alvira Khan-Agnihotri, and BJP leader Shaina NC today met Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse to invite "the political class" to see Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a cross-border human story.

Salman Khan in Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

Kabir has directed the film which stars Salman and Kareena Kapoor.
"The message is that communal violence can be resolved. They (producers) would like to donate money to farmers from the profits of the film," Shaina NC told PTI after meeting Khadse at Vidhan Bhawan here.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister  Akhilesh Yadav had recently announced tax-free status for the film, after Kabir Khan met him and made a request.

Bhaijaan can do no wrong: Check out the craziest things Salman Khan devotees have done for Bhai

Salman Khan fans in India are a rare breed.
Outwardly, they appear to be normal with the right number of eyes, ears and limbs, but on the inside, they have special filters that enable them to focus only on Bhai's on-screen persona while ignoring his off-screen antics. Picture this - Salman fans getting misty-eyed and praising him for being the saviour in Bajrangi Bhaijaan who goes against all odds to return a girl to Pakistan while conveniently forgetting that  he was a convict out on bail during the movie's shoot.
While fanaticism for Indian film actors is not uncommon, with a Rajinikanth fan who was ready to donate his own kidneys to the ailing star or  a Shahrukh Khan fan turning his house into a SRK shrine. But Salman's fans are  are devotees —crossing gender, class, geographic and religious barriers for 'Bhai',  their 'Human' idol who will do no wrong.
From lining up outside theaters before his releases to crowding outside his Galaxy Apartment and to even stopping traffic around the court while he is on trial, these devotees can go to great lengths for the actor. Most of them don't even address him by name, but respectfully refer to him as 'Bhaijaan'. And the fact that he is a convicted criminal, in more than one case, with a history of violence, doesn't seem to faze these devotees at all!

Sportsmen who fast and deliver phenomenal performances

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. The month is spent by Muslims fasting during daylight hours from dawn to sunset. Nowadays the act of not fasting is becoming popular in the public. People make excuse of the hot weather and that they can’t make it till the end of the fast and it will affect their health. Still there are some passionate Muslims who are sportsmen as well yet they continue to do their duty and fast at the same time.
These players have set an exceptional example for others while fasting and breaking records by their performance that day.
Younus Khan, cricketer from Pakistan never missed fasting in his whole playing career for Pakistan and again in 2015. He was also fighting when he scored 171* and led his team to a comfortable win over Sri-Lanka in the test series 2015.

Moeen Ali, British cricketer who will be making his Ashes debut on Wednesday in Cardiff said he has resolved to fast during the match. Speaking about fasting in Ramadan, he said, “It’s amazing what you can do, actually,” Ali added. “Before you start you think of it as really hard — but once you start it’s definitely not as hard as it sounds. If you’re not doing much you might feel a bit lethargic, but if I’m at the ground, if I’m playing, then it just isn’t difficult. And it’s brilliant for teaching self-control, having discipline, detoxification of your body, after a couple of days you really feel much better.”

Hashim Amla, cricketer from South Africa is also the one who objected to an alcoholic company’s logo on his kit. Additionally he never misses a fast at whatever time he plays a match, be it a One day international or a Test match, he always gives his 100% performance, which might be the reason why he is the best batsman currently in the world.

Mohammad Yusuf, cricketer from Pakistan. Prior to his conversion to Islam in 2005, Yousuf was one of the few Christians to play for the Pakistan cricket team. After converting to Islam, he become the player with the most part number of centuries in one year and his game just dug up better day by day and he was also one of those legendary  personalities who never missed a fast while playing and scoring runs was his natural habit while fasting.

Practicing Muslims in football include Real Madrid stars Karim Benzema, Mesut Ozil and Hamit Altintop, Manchester City’s Samir Nasri, Arsenal’s Abou Diaby, Sevilla’s Frederic Kanoute and Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka to name a few.
Some will make a decision to fast all the way through the entire month – including days where they are anticipated to train or play matches, whilst others may seek to ‘offset’ some of their fasting days after Ramadan, in order to ensure that they are able to play or train.
“It’s tougher for the players at clubs in Europe than those in the Middle East,’ says Nick Worth, Medical Director at the Abu Dhabi club Al Jazira.
Despite Zaki’s insistence that fasting has never affected him, it was to prove a sticking point at Wigan. 
“The manager Steve Bruce said to me that he understands my fast but he can’t let me play while I’m fasting.
“He told me that I have to choose. I chose fasting but then I played several matches without telling him that I’m fasting and I also kept playing well without problems.”
His decision to lie to his manager and play on an empty stomach was vindicated in one particular match in December 2008. 
“I was fasting when we beat Newcastle 2-1. I scored a goal and everyone seemed to be pleased with my performance.”
After allocation of the belief and experience of these Muslim players, there is no motive for us to skip fasting just for the reason that it’s too hot or we can’t endure it till Maghreb without eating.

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