Star Cast- Smita Gondkar, Arya Babbar, Ajaz Khan, Kanwalpreet Singh ,Salman Bhatt and Mushtaq Khan
Genre- Patriotic
Platform of Release – OTT Hungama Play
Rating- **
Pathetically Pointless!
Jyothi Venkatesh
Hai Tujhe Salaam India which is a story about the youth of India today revolves around four apolitical protagonists of the film who are studying at DU. It is the story of four bum chum friends consisting of Raakib (Aarya Babbar), Govinda (Ajaz Khan), David (new find Salman Bhatt) and Happy (Kanwalpreet Singh) . Raakib wants to do something for the country.
Govinda is an aspiring actor while David desires to direct films. When David and Govinda are signed for a film by producer Narang (Nishikant Dixit), all the four friends as well as Raakib’s girlfriend, Zoya (Smita Gondkar), set out for Gaya (in Bihar) for the shooting. However, on the way to Gaya, Happy is murdered by Bihar chief minister Janardhan Sinha’s (Gulshan Pandey), son, Vicky (Mir Umar).
The crux of the film is on how the rest of the three of them get justice delivered for the murder of the fourth friend at the hands of the chief minister’s son. They jump into direct politics after the sudden death of their friend and decide to oppose and topple the present government and give a new direction to the politics of the country.
The out and out predictable film, which is unfortunately tacky to a large extent also focuses on the mentality of youth in modern-day Indian society, their way of friendship, love, joy, study, their aim in life, attraction towards the western culture and after all love towards their nation. It sets out to depict how some leaders succeed in creating the fraction among the people on the basis of caste, religion for their own benefits, and how all of these lead to the decline of the country. The film also highlights corruption, bank balancing, illegal works, and ill behaviour towards the common people.
As far as the performances of the film go, I should say that while Arya Babbar shows promise as an actor, Smita Gondkar scores to a large extent as the leading lady of the film, though as an actress, it is a pity that she has yet to be explored more as an actor to reckon with. Ajaz Khan just about hams almost throughout the film. Though the film lacks a modern approach and has a plot which is as old as the hills, thanks to the writer duo Avanish Kumar & Shadab Siddiqui, it is the music by Sagar Bhatia & Yug Bhusal, which proves to be the major saving grace of the film with its patriotic fervour.
Avinash Pushpa Kumar’s story is very amateurish while his screenplay has been very shoddily written so much so that it often takes recourse to contrived situations and silly measures to end up enhancing the crude drama. As a director, Avinash Pushpa Kumar , leaves a lot to be desired especially since he has shouldered more than one depart and ends up taking the audiences for granted and it is indeed pathetic that though the film was released on the occasion of India’s Republic day, it is pathetically pointless and hence this so called patriotic film does more disservice to the nation than adding any kind of value to its rich cinematic legacy.
