5 reasons why Tubelight failed to impress the audience!

Wait! Bhai-Fans! Before you went on full rage mode to dis this article and defend Bhai, settle down, take a sip of cutting chai and just go through this article! You can disagree!

It came with a huge waggon of hopes tied with it with his beloved fans and industry alike. And touted to be 2017’ biggest earner at the box office ever since it was announced! And when it shows up at the theatre, everything went downhill!

Everyone was damn sure about the film as it was hit collaboration between superstar Salman Khan and director Kabir Khan , the theme was heart-warming, trailer and teaser were cute, the fact the film was inspired by Hollywood film Little Boy and even that didn’t bother the enthusiasm fans had for Tubelight . Yet this film failed to impress not only die-heart fans of Salman Khan but fans of Kabir Khan also felt led down. Though following pointers might not be accurately reasoned the description of the wreckage, but give you a good idea of what actually went wrong!

Salman Being Salman!

If you put a die heart Salman fan under psycho-analysis, one thing you will be sure of, they are actually the fan of Salman’s larger than life persona. And they can’t blame for this, we all were fed with films like Wanted, Dabangg franchise, Ek Tha Tiger, Kick and even Sultan! Such films, where we felt entertained by his superhero bravado, which feels he is almost possessed superhuman like powers! We are used to it! But in Tubelight , he was playing a character of a man-child, who is slow in his learning skills and living life as he sees and adapts with it. Now it might be an ideally challenging role for any other actor but is it tailor made for Salman and his fans?

As per initial impression, Salman’ fans weren’t so ecstatic to see Bhai weeping like a baby or weak in any manner. They literally want to see Salman Khan to kick some serious asses, coin some clap-worthy dialogues. They want the worth of their money spent on movie tickets, with the kind of entertainment Salman used to deliver. them! Though ideologically it was a good setting, not for the Salman fan, who makes his critically poor film a blockbuster!

And honestly, filmmakers should have learned a lesson from the box office report of 2005’s Salman starrer Kyon Ki… It's fate !

Kabir Khan Let loose!

Another big name who was also betting his credibility on Tubelight was Kabir Khan and being a fan of his direction, even I felt disappointed. Telling a hard hitting story without depleting human emotion was and is Kabir Khan ’s forte. Take Kabul Express, New York, and even Bajrangi Bhaijaan as an example, where he made haters of Salman Khan who used to taunt him saying ‘Salman is just style over substance’ made them believe in Salman and his potential to deliver! But this time, with Tubelight, Kabir Khan lost some grip over his fans, as neither viewer, even Salman Khan Fans, felt did not feel connected with the story or the way it was told. Frankly, the main skeleton of Tubelight ’ story was to believe in our beliefs, and we already praised Bajrangi Bhaijaan for that, where two innocent characters took a belief and despite going through a lot, they stuck to it and succeeded! So there was nothing new in that story, other than backdrop and casting difference! Despite Kabir Khan ’s Phantom was box office failure but it still holds up to Kabir Khan ’s standard, but Tubelight will be a sore note in his film trajectory!

Sohail Khan and other misfits!

Before talking about Sohail Khan , let’s talk about rest of the casting! Many actors were featured in this film and most of them were well known, like Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and local bully guys were just there to do his task being handed over, Brijendra Kala was forgettable, Yashpal Sharma was okay and legendary actor Om Puri make his last cinematic presence felt in the film. The Matin Rey Tangu in character of Gu Won was rock-star in any scene given but Zhu Zhu was completely left alienated despite having such a prominent role than others.

But the most proper mismatch in this chaos was indeed, Sohail Khan ! Despite being real life brother and more of a friend nothing transformed it to reel life! It almost felt as if the role was supposed to be played by someone one younger, but then Sohail Khan was cast to fill the place. As mentioned by Kabir Khan in the making videos, Sohail Khan was cast considering his chemistry with Salman Khan , and even I also bought it as we have seen their public appearances! But it seems Kabir Khan took a short cut, “Real Life mein bhai hai, toh Reel life mein bhi nibha jayega!”

Cringe-worthy Factors:

Even if we forget the fact for a moment that, in Little Boy, the boy was 9yr old and pursuing his belief to meet his father and Tubelight is frame by frame adaptation of that film. But how can one not flinch, when someone sees a middle age character, played by the actor who looks 40 something and wouldn’t look cringy! And the conversation between Bharat and Laxman went on to make it cringe!

And it is not just lead actors that make it seems unrealistic, the whole town Jagatpur is fabricated with unreal assumption and something which would have looked better with any other masala Bollywood film but not with Tubelight ! And I’m saying this totally keeping in mind that logic and Salman’s film doesn’t need to go hand-in-hand, and I also agree it should be kept in that way!

Promotional Strategy:

We get it! It is Salman’s Eid release and this makes it more obvious choice for any viewer to book the ticket for the film and investors to invest pocket full of money in it. And frankly, media also propagated this film as it is, despite evaluating its worth. The result, everyone bet their investments on such a weak project and end up getting their palms burned, when the films hit theatres and hordes of people they expected didn’t show up! If one can just review their promotional strategy aesthetically, they didn’t give a hint that it could be just an average film. But promotional tactic was targeted to sell everyone a larger than life character just like every Salman movie being sold before. And those who fall prey to this gimmick thought they’ll be meeting better character than Bajrangi from Bajrangi Bhaijaan and felt tricked!

I’m not saying it is totally a waste film, Salman’s attempt to explore his talent and taking a role out of his comfort zone is really commendable. A true Salman Fan would accept this fact and would see the whole film as a brilliant masterpiece. While rest would wonder why they decided to watch this film at first place! While as per current news, Salman Khan did agree to repay most of the money investors have invested in, who suffer loss and financial disappointment and also seems to have learned a lesson from it!