I am not a Salman Khan fan. The only Salman Khan movie I thought was remotely entertaining was Ek Tha Tiger. Apart from that, I quit Ready after ten minutes, Bodyguard after twenty minutes, did not like Dabangg, and thought Dabangg 2 was the biggest piece of torture I had to endure. However, I found Jai Ho to be different and actually very entertaining. With a social message of helping people shown throughout the film, and with more action and little comedy (which I have always found to be useless in Salman Khan movies), the movie is shown at a brisk pace, and is an adrenaline pumping thriller.
SRK already told us in Chennai Express not to underestimate the power of the common man. And Salman Khan tells us “aam aadmi sota hua sher hai ….”. In the movie, Salman Khan gets angry, roars, and even bites. He turns into a Hulk whenever he sees oppression, except that he doesn’t get bigger in size.
After watching the movie, if people are going to complain about how one man can beat countless guys, then they can continue complaining. I mean, it is a Bollywood movie — at least no one is shown flying in the air and hanging from a pole after getting punched. The action sequences are actually attention grabbing, with the only question remaining as to why the goons don’t seem to shoot the protagonist with guns. They attack with knives, hockey sticks, swords, baseball bats, and all that they can find — except guns.
A remake of the Telugu movie Stalin, which itself was ‘inspired’ by Hollywood’s Pay It Forward, the social message of Jai Ho is that instead of saying ‘thank you’, help three people and tell them to do the same.
At the end of the day, it is how many people one has helped and how many peoples’ lives one has changed. You don’t need superpowers to make a difference. And yes, one man can make a difference!
‘Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others ‘ – Danny Thomas