Bharat (film)

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 and her husband, Keemat Rai Kapoor. As a child, Bharat looks to supports his family. He befriends a young boy, Vilayti, and they meet a roadside circus worker Radha as they fall in love. The trio join The Great Russian Circus.

Bharat has attained a lot of fame in the years he has spent at the circus. During a celebration, 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.

Bharat joins Indian migrants 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 Raina, who he fondly addresses as "Madam Sir".

Kumud asks Bharat for marriage, but he refuses out of fear that it would come in his way of fulfilling Gautam's promise. Back in India, Kumud arrives to announce her love for Bharat. They begin a live-in relationship.

Jamuna dies; Bharat is accepted for the job of stationmaster. During 1983 Cricket World Cup, Keemat, in need of money, plans to sell the store, but Bharat disagrees and says that he and Jamuna had worked hard in the store and does not want to sell the store. Keemat asks him to buy the store from him. Bharat does so, as he still has hopes that Gautam 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.

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.

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.

As of June 2020, 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.[28] Bharat received mixed reviews from critics on release.[29]

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".[30] 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."[31] 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.[32] 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.[33] 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'.[34] Rajeev Masand writing for CNN-News18, finds the film "unmistakably boring" and "excruciatingly long". He rates the film with two stars out of five.[35] 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."[36] Jyoti Sharma Bawa of the Hindustan Times finds it 'an emotional Eid winner' and rates it with three stars out of five.[37] 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.".[38] Anupama Chopra of Film Companion, "Madam Sir, a woman with courage and conviction, is the most memorable character in Bharat. I’d love to see contemporary history told from her perspective. This version has sweep and swagger but not enough soul."[39]

Bharat's opening day domestic collection was ₹42.30 crore. This is the highest opening day collection for Salman Khan.[4] 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.[40] As of 25 September 2019, 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.[4]

As of September 2019, Bharat is the fourth highest grossing Bollywood film of 2019.[6] Based on domestic net collection the film is among top twenty in the list of Hindi films with highest domestic net collection.