Last updated: 21 April 2023

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Film: Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (Hindi), meaning “someone’s brother, someone’s lover”

Directed by: Farhad Samji

Cast: Salman Khan, Pooja Hegde, Venkatesh, Jagapathi Babu, Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, Siddharth Nigam, Shehnaaz Gill, Palak Tiwari, Vinali Bhatnagar, Bhumika Chawla and Vijender Singh

Highs: Pooja Hegde’s performance, Ravi Basrur’s background score (loud but effective), production design in the second half, picturisation of the Bathukamma song

Lows: Poor screenplay and direction, pathetic dialogues, cringeworthy romantic scenes, songs (except Bathukamma), dance choreography, overstretched and ridiculous climax

Cinemania rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Plot: Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan revolves around Bhaijaan (Salman Khan), a local goon in Delhi who doesn’t know his name and therefore adopts the name that people call him. Bhaijaan decides not to marry anyone because he wants to give priority to raise his adopted brothers Ishq (Raghav Juyal), Moh (Jassie Gill) and Love (Siddharth Nigam). However his brothers secretly fall in love with Sukoon (Shehnaaz Gill), Muskaan (Palak Tiwari) and Chahat (Vinali Bhatnagar) respectively. As the younger brothers try to find a suitable life partner for their eldest brother, they come across Bhagya (Pooja Hegde), who shares the same name as Bhaijaan’s ex-girlfriend (Bhagyashree in a cameo). The brothers try to set up Bhagya with Bhaijaan, and they eventually fall in love. Bhaijaan learns that Bhagya’s family in Hyderabad are being targeted by their rival Nageshwar (Jagapathy Babu) and sets out to protect them.

Performances: Pooja Hedge impresses in her role as Bhagyalakshmi, a Hyderabad-based artefact-collector who visits Delhi on a business trip and falls in love with Salman Khan’s Bhaijaan. Salman Khan plays to the gallery in a tailor-made role, however his dialogues are poorly-written (“they have given me their surname Gundamaneni, if you remove maneni in it the name becomes Gunda which is me”, “Indians are strong, vande mataram”). Venkatesh, in a supporting role in his comeback film in Hindi after 28 years, is wasted (it’s surprising why an actor of his stature agreed to do this film). Vijender Singh is disappointing and devoid of expressions as Mahavir, the antagonist. Jagapathi Babu performs well as the second antagonist in a role he has done-to-death in recent films. The brothers – Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, Siddharth Nigam – do justice to their roles and assist Bhaijaan in the action sequences. Shehnaaz Gill, Palak Tiwari and Vinali Bhatnagar make their presence felt in three songs but don’t get enough screentime.

Technical departments: Ravi Basrur’s pulsating background score in action episodes and the melodious tune during romantic episodes (that are otherwise cringeworthy) deserves some appreciation. Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan has high production value and the production design in the second half of the film is impressive. The songs Bathukamma, Yentamma and Billi Billi are well-picturised, however the dance choreography falls short and is very poor in the Naiyo Lagda song where Salman Khan performs lunges in the pretext of a dance move. The action-choreography in the metro train fight is commendable, however the climax fight is too stretched and head-bumping-to-death scene is ludicrous.

Screenplay and direction: Farhad Samji’s screenplay and direction is outdated in Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. Many scenes have been designed to please the masses and hardcore Salman Khan fans (for example, the opening scene where Salman Khan jumps from the top of a building and at the same time wears his coat and lands like a superhero, an elderly woman prays and the hero miraculously rises up after being presumed to be dead, etc). Also several scenes are devoid of logic – for example, not a single cop is visible following the metro fight scene. In fact, no cops feature in the film that has abundance of violence.

Overall, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan is a disappointing film with a wafer-thin plot, poor screenplay and outdated direction. Watch it at our own risk.

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