The one character who shares almost equal screen space with Bharat is Vilayti, his childhood friend. Kaif's Kumud is a progressive and independent woman, but the film pays lip service to her radical ideas. These characters serve to prop up Khan and his character arc. Kaif and Kulkarni are edged out, as is Disha Patani, who has a minuscule role as a trapeze artist and Bharat’s first love interest. The film also minimizes the roles of strong women. At 167 minutes, the film could have been trimmed by an hour and worked better. This desire to interject the film’s rather light-hearted tone with the same worn-out tropes we’ve seen in most Salman Khan films – the fight sequences, dancing and the aura of invincibility around the protagonist – is why “Bharat” falls flat. But even here, Zafar feels the need to inject dream sequences and dance numbers that are performed in designer outfits. Kaif and Khan share genuine chemistry, and their banter is one of the best parts of the film. Zafar spends a large part of the film’s bloated screen time on this romance, which is the only spark in this overwrought film. He meets Kumud ( Katrina Kaif), a feisty manager at the oil rig, and falls in love with her. After spending years waiting in long queues outside the employment exchange, and in the absence of any gainful employment, he joins the circus, works in the oil fields of the Middle East, and captains a ship that sails the African seas – all jobs that involve much risk and good money. Bharat tries to build a new life for his family in India, but the image of his father at the train station remains etched in his memory.Ī young Bharat polishes shoes and does menial jobs to help his mother supplement their meager income. His father stays behind to look for her, and the family is torn apart.īharat, his mother ( Sonali Kulkarni) and two younger siblings take shelter at an aunt's house in Old Delhi. As his family scrambles to catch the last train to India, Bharat’s sister gets lost in the melee. His family is among the millions to move to the country from the newly-carved out state of Pakistan in 1947. His arrival in India on the eve of independence is a somber one. Bharat’s fate is firmly intertwined with that of India, as we are reminded throughout the film. We see him take on five bad guys single-handedly, punching his way to victory in a matter of minutes.īased on the 2014 Korean film “ Ode to my Father”, “Bharat” charts the life of one man, set against the backdrop of the milestones India crosses in the nearly 72 years since it gained independence from the British. With his sculpted body, kickboxing skills and baritone voice, his cantankerous demeanor is the sole giveaway of his old age. The titular character is first introduced to us as a septuagenarian, but age is just a number here. In “Bharat”, Khan makes a departure from the roles we’re used to seeing him play – that of much younger characters.