Bodyguard (Hindi) - Movie Review

I finally chanced to watch Bodyguard in Hindi by Siddiqe starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the lead roles. I really wanted to watch this one after watching the Malayalam one. Really wanted to see what mainstream bollywood brought to the table.  

Though the story by-and-large remains the same, certain details undergo a change from the original one – some for good and some for not so good. The film starts off with a narration of a love story being read from a diary by a child in a train aka Kuch Kuch Hota Hai style. The story in the diary narrates the birth of Lovely Singh, son of bodyguard Balwant Singh and only born alive because of Sartaj Rana, his father’s boss. Lovely grows up to be a DEDICATED bodyguard just like his father, overtly indebted to Rana for his life itself. So when Rana’s soon-to-be-married daughter Divya requires a bodyguard owing to impending danger on her life because of revenge directed towards her father, Lovely is assigned as her bodyguard. He is expected to be with her ALWAYS, and Lovely being Lovely takes the task very seriously, which irks Divya and her friend Maya unboundedly. Irritatibly for them, he wears safari suits and aviators always, lives life on a clock, sleeps, eats and drinks his duty. The girls are embarrassed and frustrated owing to all this and decide to play a prank on him to divert his attention. Divya, who has a restricted number, starts calling him in a changed voice and thus begins a phone love affair. Lovely falls for this person on the phone who speaks to him under a pseudo name and being the simpleton he is falls in love with the girl on the phone. In the mean while what began as a prank turns serious for Divya as she too falls in love with the simple and honest Lovely. But dilemma’s have no end for her as – her father will never agree to her marrying her bodyguard and Lovely will also never accept her against her father’s wish as she is Madam to him and her father god to him. In the meanwhile Rana discovers amidst a lot of misunderstandings that Lovely is planning to elope with Divya while Lovely thinks that he is eloping with his phone lover. After all the confusions and complications the film’s story takes a 8 years leap where we see a High profiled Lovely Singh, Lovely’s son, a bedridden Rana and a still not married Divya eventually leading to final clarifications once and for all.

The story has a lot of loopholes and leaves the audience unconvinced and feeling silly. The film has an assemble feel to it and seems like an assorted dish – an Indian Chinese noodles sans the tadka. Salman Khan does what he does best i.e. entertain his fans with antics that are so much his signature style but consistency seemed marred. Kareena Kapoor disappoints in this one. An actress of her calibre was just a pretty face in this one. Manish Malhotra does a fabulous job with her styling but the emote output from Bebo was next to nil here. Hazel Keech as Maya impresses while Mahesh Majrekar is wasted. Over all a very mediocre effort. A film that completely relied on Salman’s Daabang acquired estyle and made to just entertain his fan base.

iVerdict: Average. May be a one-time watch. Keeps brains locked. 

Rating: 2/5