Time fades. History moves on. But Salman Khan remains Salman Khan. Except with a few more grey hair and a beard to boot. The trailer for Ali Abbas Zafar's Bharat captures the star displaying the best of his presence on screen as the man who experiences enough adventures for several lifetimes as he traces the path back to his family.
The trailer begins with the narrative by Khan's eponymous Bharat explaining that he has more colourful stories in his life than the white hair on his head. The stories begin with his birth on 15 August 1947. Like Salman Rushdie's book Midnight's Children, Bharat also journeys through a myriad of adventures beginning with the Partition of the country, which brings him to India from Mirpur, Lahore.
The trailer also hints at Bharat losing his own family in the event, and adopting another family after arriving in India. Sunil Grover plays the devoted friend to Khan's character, while Sonali Kulkarni seems to be playing the sister Bharat adopts in India.
Another similarity to Rushdie's novel is Bharat's first years in the circus. Disha Patani plays the early love interest of Khan in the film as he plays the daredevil Indian Evel Knievel driving around the ring of death in a circus. After the death of Nehru, Bharat heads to finding a job overseas in the oil wells of UAE. This brings him in contact with Katrina Kaif's character, who seems to play his love interest and eventual wife.
The journey is not simple though. From falling into the mineshaft, to becoming a naval officer and fighting pirates, Bharat keeps going on an adventure. The eventual scenes in the trailer offer the reason for his continuous travel — his search to find his family, sister Gudia and father Gautam (Jackie Shroff).
With enough punchlines to floor a champion boxer, the trailer has enough going for it to please Salman Khan fans. The massive scale of the visuals, and the emphasis of the hero entry for Khan, as well as the dance routines and songs with Kaif and Patani, make this a definite crowd pleaser. There are also enough action sequences to get the whistles going in the crowd.
Some of the scenes are reminiscent of some iconic moments in pop culture. The explosion in the mineshaft has shades of Amitabh Bachchan in Kaala Patthar (1979), while the battle with the pirates carries shades of the Tom Hanks film Captain Phillips (2013). Of course, these could also be down to moments of pop culture that are parallel to the events in Bharat's life.
The snappy comeback from Kaif's character who plays an engineer and officer is also an entertaining addition. The only drawback is perhaps the deadpan dialogue delivery of his lines by Khan.
While it has been his trademark style, it seems a little odd in the trailer. Perhaps the film will elaborate on the nature of his character further. The trailer also seems to have unveiled a little too much of the film, except for the fact of whether Bharat does find his family or not.
Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, Bharat will arrive in theatres on Eid, 5 June.