Bharat (film)


Bharat is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Ali Abbas Zafar. It is jointly produced by Atul Agnihotri, Alvira Khan Agnihotri, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Nikhil Namit and Salman Khan under the banners Reel Life Productions, Salman Khan Films and T-Series. The film stars Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover, Disha Patani and Jackie Shroff. Tabu makes a friendly appearance. It traces India's post-independence history from the perspective of a common man, and follows his life from the age of 8 to 70.
Based on the 2014 South Korean film Ode to My Father, principal photography for Bharat began in April 2018. Shooting took place at such locations as Abu Dhabi, Spain, Malta, Punjab and Delhi. Kaif joined the cast soon after Priyanka Chopra opted out of the role after filming commenced, for her impending engagement to Nick Jonas. Filming concluded in March 2019. The film's score was composed by Julius Packiam and the songs were composed by Vishal-Shekhar, with lyrics written by Irshad Kamil, and released under the banner T-Series.
Bharat was theatrically released in India on 5 June 2019, on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr. It received mixed reviews from critics. The film earned 42.30 crore on its first day, becoming Khan's biggest opening day release. It emerged as a commercial success with a worldwide gross of.

Plot

Set in Delhi during 2010, the film begins when Bharat, a shopkeeper, refuses to part with his store despite lucrative offers. On his 70th birthday, he tells his past life to his grandniece and the film goes into flashback.
Partition of India in 1947: Bharat's parents and siblings board a train to India with many refugees for safety from the terrible riots in Pakistan. Bharat loses his baby sister Gudiya in the chaos.
Bharat's father Gautam stays behind to search for Gudiya. He has Bharat promise him to take care of the family and move to the imported goods store of Gautam's sister Jamuna. As a child, Bharat supports his family.

17 years later

Bharat joins The Great Russian Circus with his friend Vilayti, after meeting a roadside circus worker Radha as they fall in love. He spends a number of years there and attains fame.
Bharat leaves the circus when his brother Chote is hurt in an accident while trying to emulate him. He bids a tearful goodbye with Radha. Due to Nehru's death, the country is devastated. Bharat and Vilayati look for various jobs.

11 years later

Bharat joins Indian migration prompted by oil discovery in Saudi Arabia to earn money for his sister Mehek's marriage. There he falls in love with his chief engineer Kumud.
Kumud asks Bharat for marriage, but he refuses being afraid that it comes in way of fulfilling Gautam's promise. Back in India, Kumud arrives to announce her love for Bharat. They begin a live-in relationship.

9 years later

Jamuna dies; Bharat is accepted for job of stationmaster. During 1983 Cricket World Cup, his uncle Keemat, in need of money, plans to sell the store, but Bharat disagrees and says that he and his aunt Jamuna had worked hard in the store and does not want to sell the store. His uncle asks him to buy the store from him. As his dad promised him that he will come back to hind ration store and Bharat still has the hope that his father will come back.
Bharat leaves India again with Vilayati as sailor for a period of 8 months and earns enough money to buy the store, the time during which Vilayati also marries Susan, a foreigner.

8 years later

After economic liberalisation in India and globalisation, Kumud becomes the creative director of newly-formed Zee TV and runs a program in which relatives separated during the partition are reunited.
During program, Bharat converses with Meher, a London resident adopted by a British family during partition, and realises she is Gudiya and she comes back to India. An emotional reunion ensues. Janki dies soon after; Bharat hopes to find Gautam also.
Back to present: Bharat decides to sell the store which he stubbornly refused to do despite losses. Before reaching the train, Gautam promised he will reunite with him at the store, explaining why Bharat held on to the store for so long.
Bharat realises Gautam is probably too old to still survive. He sees a vision of him, assuring that Bharat kept his promise, and asking him to move on. Tearful, Bharat marries Kumud, finally moving on.

Cast

Bharat is based on the South Korean film Ode to My Father, which traces the history of South Korea parallel to a man's life, spanning from the 1950s to the 2010s.
Bharat began principal photography in mid-April 2018, and was shot in Abu Dhabi, Spain, Malta, Punjab, Delhi and elsewhere. Priyanka Chopra, who was cast as one of the leading ladies, opted out of the film days before filming her scenes. Nikhil Namit, CEO of Reel Life Productions, said that Priyanka quit due to her engagement to Nick Jonas. She was replaced by Katrina Kaif. Kaif shared the news on her Instagram account that filming was wrapped up on 5 March 2019. The climax was shot in Film City.

Soundtrack

The songs featured in the film were composed by Vishal–Shekhar, lyrics written by Irshad Kamil, with music arranger & producer Meghdeep Bose. Zafar wrote and composed the song "Zinda" with Julius Packiam. It is released under the banner T-Series. Devarsi Ghosh of Scroll.in positively summarised the soundtrack review as 'near-perfect.' Firstpost praised the song Chashni as "soul-stirringly beautiful."

Marketing and release

posted a glimpse of Katrina Kaif and himself from the film on his Instagram account on 25 August 2018. Salman Khan released Bharat's first look poster on 15 April 2019, through Twitter. On 17 April, a poster showcasing Kaif's character was released. The film's official trailer was released on 22 April 2019.
Bharat was released on 5 June 2019 on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, worldwide on 6000 screens including 4700 screens in India.

Home video

The film was made available for video on demand on Prime Video in August 2019.

Reception

Critical response

, the film holds a 33% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 reviews with an average rating of 5.33/10. Bharat received mixed reviews from critics on release.
Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five, calling it "an exhausting, scattered watch despite the entertainment, humour and nobility it propagates". She concluded, "Bharat is well-intentioned, entertaining and doesn’t succumb to the trappings of commercial potboilers". Priyanka Sinha Jha of CNN-News18, praising Khan for his
performance rates the film with three stars out of five, and feels that the script is bit lengthy and required 'sharper' editing. In the end, She says, "For all its virtues, Bharat falls short of becoming a tour de force, but it could turn into a crowd-puller."
Trade analyst and critic Taran Adarsh concurs with Jha on script trimming and gives four stars out of five. Declaring it "smash-hit" he praises Ali for direction, Kaif, and Khan for performance. He feels that the film is an emotional journey that wins the viewers over. Manjusha Radhakrishnan of the Gulf News, also says that it would have benefited from trimming so finds the film 'dull', that is likely to test patience of audience. And, she gives it two stars out of five. Ananya Bhattacharya writing for India Today praised acting of Kaif and Khan but feels that the main attraction is Sunil Grover. She also rates it with three stars out of five and concludes that Salman has given his fans 'an out-and-out entertainer'. Rajeev Masand writing for CNN-News18, finds the film "unmistakably boring" and "excruciatingly long".
He rates the film with two stars out of five. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost finds the film laden with weak 'humor' and 'lackluster' songs. Rating it with two stars out of five Vetticad concludes, "Far from being a Forrest Gump with Salman Khan, Bharat is mostly a plodding trek through post-1947 to contemporary India." Jyoti Sharma Bawa of the Hindustan Times finds it 'an emotional Eid winner' and rates it with three stars out of five. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave two and a half stars out of five and opines, "The good thing about the film, despite its eye-roll moments, is its attempt to create an ‘ordinary’ man without any particular skills.".

Box office

Bharat's opening day domestic collection was 42.30 crore. This is the highest opening day collection for Salman Khan. On the second day it's screenings dipped in multiplexes, yet remained strong in single-screen theatres and earned 31 crore - raising the total to Rs 73.30 crore., with a gross of 251.27 crore in India and 74.31 crore overseas, the film has a worldwide gross collection of 325.58 crore.
, Bharat is the fourth highest grossing Bollywood film of 2019. Based on domestic net collection the film is among top twenty in the list of Hindi films with highest domestic net collection.