Bajrangi Bhaijaan

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Bajrangi and Shahida/Munni

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 that 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 the office 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.

Once in Pakistan, however, 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.

Tropes used in Bajrangi Bhaijaan include:

• 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 Munni a last gift...
• Based on a True Story: the scene introducing Chand Nawab, where he tries to record a film on a stairway at a railway station but he gets repeatedly interrupted by passengers, is based on an actual incident experienced by a Pakistani reporter also named Chand Nawab.
• Book Dumb: Bajrangi. It's established that he spent around 20 years for finishing high school, and took him 11 extra tries before finally graduating.
• Catch Phrase: Bajrangi's "Jai Shri Ram" (usually translated as "Hail Lord Ram" or "Glory to Lord Ram"). Shahida screams it to him in the end.
• 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.
  • Bajrangi's first actual speaking scene after his Establishing Music Number consist on him finding a lost child, taking her to the authorities, and, when the authorities are unable to help, refuses their offer of placing the kid into an institution and brings her with him.
  • 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 every time Bajrangi acts way 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 his fellow bus passengers during the travel back to Delhi in this way.
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Bajrangi learns that not everybody is as academically slow as him.

Rasika's father: Can't he get some job in your school? Bajrangi: Wow, you too. Rasika: What? Bajrangi: You still study in school? Rasika: No, I teach there.

• 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: every time 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.
• Source Music: the two actual choreographed songs in the film, "Selfie Le Le Re" (the one whom Bajrangi introduces himself to the audience) and the "Chicken Song" (when Bajrangi and Rasika try to cheer up and make a depressed Munni eat) are implied to be actually sung by the characters.
• Toe-Tapping Melody: "Chicken Kuk-Doo-Koo" is allegedly improvised by Bajrangi and Rasika to uplift a sad Munni enough so she can finally eat, but somehow everyone around joins Bajrangi's choreography.
• Vague Age: Bajrangi may be pushing late 30- early 40s but actual numbers aren't given. His kind of role tends to be given to actors half the age Salman Khan has while filming it. Lampshaded after Bajrangi gets the hand of Rasika, when his mother in law guides him out of the room.

By the way, I never asked you before. What's your age?

• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Mr. Chaturvedi is immensely disappointed on his son, as his wanted a son that embodied both physical and mental strength, but the kid is completely dumb in academical matters, too ticklish to become a wrestler despite being strong enough for it, and too honest to get into politics. He has eventually gave up on his son, to the point that when Bajrangi came home after his 11th attempt to graduate high school he advised him that just stop it and go to Delhi to get a job instead. He dies due to sheer shock when Bajrangi confirms that he finally passed his final exams, the closest to approval he ever gave to his son.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Bajrangi, as part of his devotion to Lord Haruman, does the constant conscious effort of being truthful in everything, even when it may give him trouble. Apparently it keeps him on the favor of his god, as things begin to get bad for him when he get a child to live with his in laws in false pretenses (on Bajrangi's defense, he didn't knew he was bringing her on false pretenses, what with the child being unable to explain), and it only escalates from there.

My friends told me to cheat... but, I was a devotee of Bajrang Bali after all. I said, I would rather fail than cheat.