Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Bajrangi Bhaijaan (translatable as Brother Bajrangi) is an Indian Hindi-language adventure comedy drama film released in 2015. It stars Salman Khan and Harshaali Malhotra, along with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Kareena Kapoor.

Shahida (Malhotra) is an adorable 6-year old Pakistani girl that lives in a very picturesque village in Pakistani Kashmir. Unfortunately, she was born mute, which proves dangerous after an incident where she couldn't call for help after falling down a cliff. After having exhausted medical options on their quest to restore their daughter speech, Shahida's parents decide, as a last resource, to takes her to the shrine of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi. Unfortunately, in the return trip just before crossing the border, the train stops for repairs and Shahida gets off to save a lamb. The train drives off before Shahida can re-board it, and in her confusion, she boards a freight train and winds up in Kurukshetra, Haryana, during the festivities honoring the Hindu god Lord Hanuman (usually also named Bajrangbali). In Kurukshetra, Shahida is found by Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi alias Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Khan), a devout Hindu Brahmin and an ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman.

Bajrangi is a simpleton of great heart and honesty but few smarts, so, when he is unable to find her parents and not knowing what to do with the girl, decides to name her Munni and brings him back to Delhi, to the house he lives along with his fianceé Rasika Pandey (Kapoor) and his in-laws, all of them also Hindu Brahmins, on the belief that the kid is Brahmin as well. He and Rasika try very hard to investigate where Munni comes from, without real success. The girl, however, soon leaves very clear her actual nationality and religion by performing Muslim rituals in a nearby mosque and supporting Pakistan's team during a televised India-Pakistan cricket match. Rasika's father, feeling deceived, demands the kid removed from his house ASAP.

But as Bajrangi tries to return Munni to her country he gets all legal ways blocked. When he tries to explain the case to the Pakistani High Commission, he gets mocked, and then violent protestors force them to close. And when he entrust Munni to a travel agent, the man instead tried to sell the girl to a brothel, a fate Bajrangi impedes on time by trashing the brothel and its patrons. Finally fed up, Bajrangi decides to bring Munni into pakistan and return her to her parents himself, without documents or passports.

But once in Pakistan, their problems only increase further. Pakistani authorities arrest Bajrangi on the suspicions that he's an indian spy, and while he and Munni manage to somewhat escape that, they end tailed/joined by an pakistani journalist, Chand Nawab (Siddiqui), who follows them partly in the hope of finally finding a good story, partly for legitimate desire to help them. And so the trio ends going up north, searching for Munni's village and relatives.


 * Adult Fear: the film is made of it:
 * The premise: imagine that you are doing a routine travel, and your child gets stranded behind in a country that it's unknown for them. Worse enough, your children is disabled and can't communicate, and you can't go back because of legal wiretape and years of inter-country hostility.
 * The incident that kick-started the plot: imagine your mute child falling of a cliff, getting stranded in a tree for god knows how long, and being unable to call for help.
 * Bajrangi discovering that he unknowingly entrusted the safety of a child to a person that sold her for what is very probably sexual slavery, and he only discovered it because he returned to the place to give her a parting gift just on time to see the child and her guardian leave the place. He manages to rescue her on time, but imagine if he hasn't decided to give
 * Book Dumb: Bajrangi. It's established that he spent around 10 years for finishing high school, and took him 12 tries to finally graduate college.
 * Catch Phrase: Bajrangi's "Jai Shri Ram" (glory to Lord Ram).
 * Completely Different Title: in China, the film was titled as "Little Lolita Monkey God Uncle".
 * Cute Mute: Shahida/Munni
 * Establishing Character Moment: Watch carefully "Selfie Re Re Re" and read the subtitles of the song. It tells you exactly what type of person Bajrangi is.
 * Shahida's first scenes show her being inordinately compassionate towards small animals, being fascinated by street jewelry, and having a knack to slip off her guardians' watchful eye. All of these traits will get her into more trouble several times in the film.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change/Beard of Sorrow: while in Pakistan, Bajrangi's hair is longer and grows a beard that reflects his increasing worries.
 * Face Palm: Munni ends facepalming everytime Bajrangi acts waaay too trusting and honest for his own good.
 * Fan Disservice: the scene where Bajrangi is being tortured by Pakistani policemen. Salman Khan shirtless is a nice view, but not when being covered in blood and being the victim of the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique.
 * How We Got Here: Bajrangi tells his backstory to is fellow bus passengers during the travel back to Delhi in this way.
 * Innocent Bigot: Bajrangi. He gets extremely surprised that a lightskinned child like Munni is actually a Muslim Pakistani. He ends getting over it quickly.
 * Instant Web Hit: when Nawab's boss refuses to air Nawab's report on Bajrangi because their story turned out to be an actual Human Interest Story and not the "dangerous indian spy" they originally expected, Nawab decides to upload his report to YouTube. It soon becomes viral in both India and Pakistan, and the popular support it inspires plays a role on Bajrangi being freed and deported back to India instead of jailed on accounts of espionage.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Bajrangi and Shahida/Munni.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Chand Nawab.
 * Lawful Stupid. Bajrangi. One example: he ends being beaten by Pakistani border guards 4 times because he insist on them giving them permission to go inside the country. Even Munni is stumped by this.
 * Missed Him by That Much: Munni's mother was in the same Muslim festival Bajrangi and Munni infiltrated to escape the Pakistani police, and at some moment they were mere meters of each other. They only realized it when reviewing some footage Nawad filmed to have as background for his reporting.
 * Named After Somebody Famous: Shahida got her name after the Pakistani cricket player Shahid Afridi. Bajrangi's nickname is after one of the many names of the Hindu god Haruman.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Bajrangi. Only his father and his girlfriend call him for his given name Pawan. Also Shahida: she is called Munni for most of the film, justified because she is mute and cannot say her own name.
 * Running Gag: everytime Bajrangi lets other people lie for him, he immediately gets something going wrong for him on his quest. It culminates when he finally tells a lie himself to make Munni run towards safety, which is followed by him getting violently subdued and arrested.