This Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif Eid release is epic in its scale – starting from Partition, touching on Pandit Nehru’s era, it fast forwards us to 2010 with Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Manmohan Singh as reference points

Bharat is well-intentioned, entertaining and doesn’t succumb to the trappings of commercial potboilers. The fact that it tries a bit too hard to prove that, is its problem.

Bharat has its own share of problems, beginning with the near-three-hour runtime. But when people wait a year for a Salman Khan Eid release, can you really blame the superstar for giving his fans their larger-than-life hero in an out-and-out entertainer, replete with song and dance?

Don’t go looking for logic in a Salman Khan film. Upar Allah, neeche dharti, beech mein… tera junoon.

On the whole, BHARAT is a super-entertainer with emotions as its strong USP and Salman Khan like never before. The superb combination of Salman Khan, emotions and the release period [Eid] will ensure fireworks at the ticket windows. At the box office, it will fetch bumper profits for all concerned.

It’s a Salman Khan film where he’s required to emote and not just punch some 20 goons at regular intervals. To his credit, he doesn’t shy away from the challenge. He’s shown to be modelled on Lord Ram – caring towards everyone, loyal to his friends, devoted to his family and having a strong sense of dharma, of justice. Somewhere along the way, the focus of the film shifts from India to Bharat the character and that’s its chief flaw. You leave the theatre feeling underwhelmed…

Watching Bharat I felt a strange stirring of hope and joy. The film spreads a sunshine across its tapestried universe. But it fails to provide an even narrative soundboard for its protagonist whose life hardly seems as illustrative of India’s chequered history as he would like us to believe. Not always credible, Bharat nevertheless manages to never loose its composure. It is an achievement of epic proportion which losses some of its greatness in trying to say too many things at the same time.

Bharat is not a patriotic film, it has all the elements required to make a full-fledged masala pot-boiler. With some age-old ideologies sprinkled with newness, Salman’s film will entertain audience.

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Bharat delivers it’s promise of being an emotional entertainer. Fans who want to see Salman reinvent his superstar image with a solid storyline will be pleased with Bharat.

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The movie comes to a complete circle in the climax. There are no questions left unanswered, leaving you satisfied. You laugh, you weep and you just feel nice for Bharat. The movie is treated like a grandpa telling a couple of tales to his grand-kids and it does it beautifully. Watch Bharat for it will definitely bring a huge smile on your face. I never felt so heartwarming since Bhajrangi Bhaijaan. Suggestion: Watch it with an avid Salman Khan fan in a single screen for a memory of a lifetime.

If only the flaws had been reduced or ironed out, “Bharat” could have been a classic. It just stops short. But a Salman-Eid whopper is back after a two-year holiday.