Tubelight Movie Review: Salman Gives A Good Performance But Not His Best!

Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)

Star Cast: Salman Khan, Zhu Zhu, Sohail Khan, Om Puri, Matin Rey Tangu

Director: Kabir Khan

Tubelight Review

What’s Good: SRK’s cameo, Salman’s act in the last scene, the extra-sweet Matin, camerawork, the songs Main Agar and Kintu Parantu.

What’s Bad: Weak script, predictable climax, lack of emotional connect.

Loo Break: Yes.

Watch or Not?: Only if you are a diehard Salman Khan fan

User Rating:

In a small town called Jagatpur in Kumaon, Laxman Singh Bisht (Salman Khan), a slow-witted person grows up under the able protection of his loving and caring younger brother Bharat Singh Bisht (Sohail Khan). While others tease Laxman, bully him and call him Tubelight, Bharat shuts them up and protects his brother whenever needed.

Everything was going fine till suddenly a war breaks out— The Sino-Indian war of 1962. Bharat and other youngsters from the town join the Indian army and go to the front to fight. Laxman also tries to join the army but fails the physical test and hence he stays back at home. This leaves Laxman alone, who is innocent, vulnerable and unable to protect himself.

An Indian woman of Chinese origin Lee Ling (Zhu Zhu) comes from Calcutta to stay there with her little son Guwo (Matin Ray Tangu). While Laxman hates them at first, he is forced to follow the Gandhian principle of befriending who you consider your enemy by Banne Chacha (Om Puri). That’s how Lee and Guwo turn Laxman’s only friends in a place where others were mostly unkind in their approach towards him or simply ignore his antics.

Laxman keeps asking the army chief posted there, Major Rajveer Tokas (Yashpal Sharma) when will his brother return from war to which he cannot offer a suitable reply.
While others fear Bharat is dead by now, Laxman’s yakeen (faith) keeps him going. Banne Chacha tells him that faith can even move mountains, which Laxman takes very literally and tries to do that. At the same time, he keeps believing that his brother, who has been captured by the Chinese army, will return from the front and declares that he will get Bharat back with his ‘yakeen’.

Tubelight Review

Tubelight Review: Script Analysis

The story is hugely inspired by American war-drama film Little Boy with minor changes here and there and the makers give due credit to the original.

Tubelight is a movie, the story of which is relevant in the tensed times of today but the script looks weak. The plot seems to have lost in maize while looking for a purpose. Laxman’s character is not properly scripted and leaves you with many questions. There are several unnecessary characters without whom the film would do equally well.

Also, I failed to understand why Banne chacha almost forces Laxman to befriend Lee Ling and her son in the beginning.The ending is predictable and the climax could be a little more interesting.

Tubelight Review: Star Performance

Salman puts up a nice performance but this is surely not one of his best. His chemistry with real life brother Sohail is endearing. Salman’s act in the last scene to bring a comatose person to sense, reminded me of Kamal Haasan’s act in Sadma to make Sridevi recognize him.

Sohail Khan pulls off an average performance. The lack of expressions on his face is noticeable.

Shah Rukh Khan excels in his cameo and I would like to mention his makeup artiste Arun Indulkar for the brilliant makeup! Yes you would not want to take your eyes off him in those 8-10 minutes!

Late actor Om Puri delivers a nice performance.

Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub and Brijendra Kala are good actors but the script fails to utilize them properly.

Yashpal Sharma is impressive as the army Major.

Child actor Matin Ray Tangu is extremely cute and talented and you wouldn’t want to take your eyes off him but then he doesn’t have much to do in the film. The same goes for the pretty Chinese actress Zhu Zhu, who makes her Bollywood debut with this film.

Tubelight Review: Direction, Music

When you set your standards too high, people’s expectations from you also grow higher. That has become the case with Kabir Khan, whose last film with Salman Khan was not just a huge commercial success, but touched the heart of every viewer. While Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a film, which makes me sit in front of the television even today, Tubelight hardly strikes a chord!

In most parts of the film, Laxman is either in tears or about to cry and is stretching his arms and producing a weird sound from his throat to move something or the other with his ‘yakeen’. Few scenes are hilarious like Laxman’s physical test for the army, his apologising to the temple priest, school master and an elderly woman for mischief committed in the past and calling Guwo as Goo throughout the film. The film stretches, especially in the second half and unlike Bajrangi Bhaijaan, I did not need a tissue to wipe my tears this time. The film lacks emotional connect despite Kabir Khan’s sincere attempts to make the audience weep. Aseem Mishra does a splendid job with the camera.

While I felt so many songs were not necessary in the film, which only extended the run time, I liked the numbers Kintu Parantu and Main Agar.

Tubelight Review: The Last Word

This Tubelight flickers, fails to shine bright. The film fails to leave an impact. Surely, a little more was expected from the actor-director duo who has delivered a film like Bajrangi Bhaijaan in the past! 2 stars for this.

Tubelight Trailer

Tubelight releases on 23rd June, 2017.

Share with us your experience of watching Tubelight.