Tubelight: Not worth switching on

A few enjoyable doses of humour do little to prevent Tubelight from becoming a drawn-out affair

It is possible to sleep with the Tubelight on. The latest in a series of collaborations between superstar Salman Khan and filmmaker Kabir Khan is repetitive, preachy, and unforgivably insubstantial. While the film is set mostly in the India-China war of 1962, its plot is as simplistic as its characters. Fortunately, at 136 minutes, it is shorter than expected.
 
Salman plays Lakshman Singh Bisht, a man-child nicknamed “tubelight” for his slow uptake. The only one who believes in him is little brother and protector Bharat (Sohail Khan). Together, they grow up cheerfully in Jagatpur, Uttarakhand.
 
The calm of the hills is disturbed when war breaks out and local youths, including Bharat, join the Kumaon regiment in fighting the Chinese. Lakshman, who has no perceivable means of income, fears for his brother’s safety. Things in the village are further complicated by the arrival of a Chinese-origin mother and son (Zhu Zhu and Matin Rey). The movie is purportedly a tribute to the families of soldiers engaged in battle.

 

In a scene soon after the opening, Salman and Sohail enter the screen on horseback. Two ageing, building-shaped actors cast as men younger than themselves, riding a flock of graceful white and black stallions — this is a perfect metaphor for nepotism and hero worship in Bollywood. Neither war film nor tense human drama, the core theme revolves around “yakeen” (faith). The treatment is unsubtle. In fact, the word “yakeen” is repeated enough times to warrant a drinking game. 
 
Although part of a period that could be called a “Salmanaissance” — when the actor switched from doing blatantly commercial action-comedies to making colourful, life-affirming stories — there is an obvious formula at work. Salman is the likeable loser, just as in Bajrangi Bhaijaan (also directed by Kabir Khan) before this. In this film, too, a cute child is a pivotal character. Where Bajrangi Bhaijaan featured the snowcapped peaks of the India-Pakistan border, the Kumaon mountains take centre stage here.

 
Despite the economical runtime, Tubelight feels drawn out, thanks to boring exchanges (mainly between the characters of Salman and Zhu Zhu) and the clumsy search for “yakeen” through means involving magic and Gandhian philosophy. Even a first-day, first-show audience found hardly anything worth cheering.
 
Tubelight does dodge one convention by avoiding any sugary romance. The depictions of small-town life are fairly enjoyable, too. Some of the writing is effective, for instance when Lakshman describes his newborn brother as “pahadi ghaas jaise mulayam” (soft as the grass of the hills).
 
A few jokes are impactful in the first instance, before being ruined by overuse. Most people in the village are depicted being unduly mean to Lakshman, even soldiers whose mates are trapped in the war find time to giggle like teenagers at his naivety.

 
The film’s main source of redemption is Om Puri, who as Banne Chacha, delivers one of his last sparkling performances before passing away in 2016. There is also the delightful comic timing of character-actor Brijendra Kala. Unlike Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, however, they do not get sustained screen-time to work their magic. Salman, known for generating blockbusters regardless of poor critical acclaim, indulges in carefree hamming.
 
With no deep insight on the futility of war, or the strength of belief, or the condition of displacement, Tubelight suffers from a shortage of power.