Movie Review: Tubelight, flicker or bright light?
Movie Review “Tubelight”
Rating: 3/5
Director: Kabir Khan
Cast: Salman Khan, Zhu Zhu, Sohail Khan, Om Puri, Matin Rey Tangu
The film is mostly played to the gallery, but with a lot of force. Kabir Khan might seem very conventional in his approach, but he is also very effective. The film completely plays to Khan’s strength of adapting a Boy Scout onscreen. Tubelight is an entertaining family drama set in a small town in the hills of northern India, and tells the story of one man’s love for his family and his unshakeable belief in himself. After Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Kabir Khan and Salman Khan come together to tell another heartwarming story about the power of doing good.
The film that propagates the values of family, faith and patriotism doesn’t manage to take a complete leap of faith because somewhere someone couldn’t pull this one off convincingly. In fact, everything is so cloyingly sweet that you start feeling you’ve strolled into a sermon rather than a Salman movie. Pritam’s Naach Meri Jaan and Sajan Radio are magical, as is Shah Rukh Khan’s cameo as magician, Go-Go Pasha. Aseem Mishra’s camera work is largely-breathtaking.
Salman puts up a nice performance but this is surely not one of his best. His chemistry with real life brother Sohail is endearing. Salman’s act in the last scene to bring a comatose person to sense, reminded me of Kamal Haasan’s act in Sadma to make Sridevi recognize him.
Sohail Khan pulls off an average performance. The lack of expressions on his face is noticeable. Shah Rukh Khan excels in his cameo and I would like to mention his makeup artiste Arun Indulkar for the brilliant makeup! Yes, you would not want to take your eyes off him in those 8-10 minutes!
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Late actor Om Puri delivers a nice performance. Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub and Brijendra Kala are good actors but the script fails to utilize them properly. Yashpal Sharma is impressive as the army Major. Child actor Matin Ray Tangu is extremely cute and talented and you wouldn’t want to take your eyes off him but then he doesn’t have much to do in the film. The same goes for the pretty Chinese actress Zhu Zhu, who makes her Bollywood debut with this film.
When you set your standards too high, people’s expectations from you also grow higher. That has become the case with Kabir Khan, whose last film with Salman Khan was not just a huge commercial success but touched the heart of every viewer. While Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a film, which makes me sit in front of the television even today, Tubelight hardly strikes a chord!
In most parts of the film, Laxman is either in tears or about to cry and is stretching his arms and producing a weird sound from his throat to move something or the other with his ‘yakeen’. Few scenes are hilarious like Laxman’s physical test for the army, his apologizing to the temple priest, schoolmaster and an elderly woman for mischief committed in the past and calling Guwo as Goo throughout the film. The film stretches, especially in the second half and unlike Bajrangi Bhaijaan, I did not need a tissue to wipe my tears this time. The film lacks emotional connect despite Kabir Khan’s sincere attempts to make the audience weep. Aseem Mishra does a splendid job with the camera.
