It might have its heart in the right place, but the brain appears to be missing. For all the references to the aam aadmi and the solutions it offers to inspire change, this film ultimately is about the victory of a man who lets his fists do the talking. Muddled message there.

`Jai Ho’ could have been a pure and simple `Dabangg 3’. It’s not. It’s not even a no-holds-barred South remake either. Jai’s ‘aam aadmi’ catches traction only a moment. In the rest, he goes back to snarling and kicking and scowling.

All said and endured, here’s the sort of average product which is immune to criticism. Say anything you honestly feel, down the decades it has been huffed – so what? That doesn’t make a jot of a difference. Correct. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t express your take. You may be in a minority of one or two, but you can’t help feeling that Salman Khan, like most of his peers, could do with immediate re-invention. Repetition and excess can sell. Unpleasant question: but for how long?

Despite the hamfisted direction (at one point Suniel Shetty shows up on a highway and starts shooting people with a goddamned tank), the film’s main problem is that Jai Ho isn’t about being a samaritan or paying it forward; it’s about a man who can smash the system all by himself. Not entirely relatable, nope.

In all honesty, I’m confused about how to evaluate Jai Ho. Because it’s not a film. It’s a cartoon. So, to point out that the story is laughably ridiculous or that the characterisation has no depth seems churlish. After all, you can’t go to see a cartoon and then complain about its disconnect with reality.

What could have been a relevant crowd-pleaser with a little effort from Sohail Khan and his writers is mostly a tedious and overcrowded drivel that shamelessly depends on Salman Khan’s strapping charisma to tide them over.

Jai Ho is a tale that is about as exciting – and just as empty – as the spiel of a politician going to the polls.

Mr Khan has been the undisputed action star for a while but with Jai Ho the actor is keen to expand on his Being Human avatar and force on viewers a social message. Don’t accept the gratitude of those who you help, instead ask them to help three people in turn. Given that audiences didn’t react to these words of wisdom in the theatre and instead cheered and clapped when Khan tore his T-shirt and screamed and broke bones of his many opponents, we don’t know how much of it will be soaked in.

The film exhorts the values of helping other people but it is repeated till the cows come home. Here’s my humble way of helping others- avoid this film and save your money. And please spread the word.

Salman Khan’s box-office draw is indisputable but you can’t circumvent every rule in the book and hope to just ride on star power. The least expectation from a Salman film is that despite it’s complete disregard for logic, it will succeed in entertaining but ‘Jai Ho’ fails even on that account.

…talking about or analysing this movie might be a futile exercise, considering that even as I write this, there are scores of ‘bhaifans’ out there beaming inside a theatre and enjoying themselves, no matter how bad the film is. We can only hope they are inspired to help three people like their bhai instructed them to. Something good has to come out of everything.

…the script in itself is more a sitting duck refusing to help the hulk-like Salman push the film anywhere close to what a film with a proper Salman-script combo could have. Our word – Salman Khan fans will love this film and others might just about be entertained, but to expect this film to be the next Munna Bhai is a Utopian thought.

The film appears to be a massive PR fillip for Salman—working on his image of a do-gooder with a volatile temper. The film and his image feed off each other. There’s also some token nationalism forced in for good measure. You’ll get a lot of Salman Khan here, but an entertaining movie, you will not.

…typical mix of action, silly humor, romance, loud background score, and ill-placed mediocre songs. Though, “baaki sab first class hai” does have decent lyrics. Too little to hang on to for a film that last 2.5 hours.

Jai Ho is so sloppily put-together, you wonder if footage of the actor taking a nap over two hours would have been more entertaining. It will, however, ensure the prophecy expressed in one of the songs – “Apna kaam banta, bhaad main jaaye janta” – comes true for its producers in the form of a fat cheque.

Purely as a superhero film, Jai Ho works on far greater levels than, say, a Krrish 3. Petty powers like flying, web-spitting palms or acting aren’t required, because the man has hands. And they’re not the 2.5-kilo version. He even has legs that can kickstart an ambulance.