The film starts off with a Pakistani village household cheering for Pakistan while watching its nail biting crucial cricket match with India on television. Inspired by the ace Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, a to be mother from the household names her daughter as Shahida (Harshaali Malhotra). The girl despite being beautiful and expressive does not speak a word, which worries her parents day after day. On the advice of an elderly person in the family, Shahida's mother decides to take Shahida to a wish-fulfilling holy dargah in Delhi, India. On their way back to Pakistan, their train halts due to a technical failure. That's when the innocent and animal loving Shahida sees a helpless lamb fallen in a pit.

So, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is Salman Khan's most daring film where Salman presents a beautiful performance - but allows the story to be the real dabangg. Pawan (Salman) aka 'Bajrangi' is a devout Shri Hanuman bhakt who meets a speech-impaired child (Harshaali) wandering alone, hungry and silent. Bajrangi decides to help the child, whom he calls Munni, return to her family - which is in Pakistan. Facing borders and biases, lacking a visa, called a spy, can Bajrangi get Munni home - and return to India himself? With Bajrangi, you meet a whole new Salman - this is not the shirt-ripping, ab-flaunting, dialogue-maro-ing Khan but a simple, innocent and honest man, who fails, gets tricked and beaten up - but never shaken from his purpose.

If movies are meant to inspire, then Bajrangi Bhaijaan fulfills its purpose with resounding success. It will motivate you to get in touch with goodness. It will coax you to abandon the remotest negativity in life and be positive, all the time. This one has a golden heart. It's unlike any movie Salman Khan has ever featured in before. This is a story that transcends the borders and limitations of culture, geography and even emotions. It sells you a far-fetched story set in utopian circumstances. And regardless of how much logic you employ to resist, it will suck you in and you will feel the tug at your heart strings. And the only emotion you'll be able to reciprocate is love.

Films revolving around Indo-Pak relations usually rely on jingoism and nationalism to score brownie points with the audience, but Kabir Khan, maker of films like Kabul Express and Ek Tha Tiger, dares to be different with his latest offering, which can be described as Salman Khan's sweetest Eid treat ever for his fans. Starring Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and child artiste Harshaali Malhotra, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a touching tale of love, peace and harmony that is bound to bring a lump to your throats.

There are two stars in the film, but the peg is on Salman Khan. To call him a star would be demeaning his market value. He is a product that sells even before a film begins shooting. Returns are guaranteed. We have seen that in his films in the recent past. As of today, even if Salman Khan never tries, the Box Office rocks. But BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN is different; Salman tries. He rocks yet again.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a sweet story, dusted with sugar, glazed with honey and dipped in saccharin. While the sugar rush can get a little dizzying in the start, it's a matter of time before you acquire the taste for it. For Kabir Khan's latest offering is a simple and earnest mix of ingredients that most Indian audience finds palatable-apart from bhai of course. Cricket, cross-border love and happy endings. The last bit's hardly a spoiler and regardless of the liberties it takes with rationality and sense, it is an entertainer through and through.

Up for a Bollywood-style fairytale? One in which two bitter foes come together over a revved-up set-piece involving India and Pakistan, flag-waving patriots, bigots-turned-pacifists, an adorable little girl, and a superstar named Salman Khan? Phir bhaiyya, and behena, 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' le le re. The fact that the film would be a highly-anticipated Eid releases was known. But no one could have anticipated that the stormy relationship between the two nations would be a Page One newspaper headline on the very day the film is out: the border is burning, and tensions are riding high.

Salman Khan plays Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi aka Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a clean hearted simpleton, a Hanuman bhakt with loyalty inherited from his father towards RSS. And he is refreshingly not the typical dude ready to throw punches in the air at any moment guy. On the contrary, he is the antithesis of a typical Salman Khan character; he is modest, peaceful and bows down even when he spots a monkey. Pawan meets Rasika (Kareena Kapoor Khan) when he comes to Delhi from UP to stay with his father's friend's family.

'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' includes elements of a typical Salman Khan film; it's larger than life, takes huge leaps of imagination and shows Bajrangi (Salman Khan) make impossible things happen with ease. But it's got heart. And it's got a winsome, endearing and dashingly handsome Salman Khan. As expected, it has Indo- Pak peace rhetoric riding on human spirit. But somehow, it makes these clichs work. It's Shahida's story, a sweet, spirited 6-year-old Pakistani girl who loses her way in India. Lost, hungry & lonely, she begins to stick to the enthusiastic Hanuman devotee Salman Khan; Pawan Chaturvedi, also known as Bajrangi.

The plot of Bajrangi Bhaijaan is no mystery. Salman plays the lead role of Pawan Chaturvedi aka Bajrangi bhakt who is goodness personified. He doesn't lie, won't cheat even if he's forced to, has an uncanny habit of bowing down in front of monkeys whom he considers avatars of Lord Hanuman - the list is endless. So when Shahida aka Munni (Harshaali Malhotra) who is mute loses her way from Pakistan and lands up in India, she takes solace in Pawan's arms. Of course, the agreement isn't consensual and the first half goes in Pawan trying to figure out who is Munni and what her place of origin is. Kareena Kapoor Khan plays Rasika, Salman's love interest and the only character wearing color and a bit of glamour.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a supercharged cross-border drama that goes all out - and then some - in delivering its message of subcontinental peace. Director Kabir Khan pulls out an old chestnut - the theme of humanity trumping a history of bitterness. Into this perennially bubbling cauldron, he throws a devout, upright Hindu do-gooder and an achingly beatific but speechless six-year-old Pakistani girl stranded on the Indian side of the border. Bridging many divides - religion, national identity, food habits - the two develop an unlikely bond that wipes out all prejudices.

Never mind which side of the divide you decide to stand, here's one fact of life you ignore at your own peril: Never judge a Salman Khan fan when he's rooting for the Bhai pulling off the most logic defying stunts, and even scenes. Because, Kabir Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan is one film that will bring them to the theatres in droves and you'd do yourself a favour by keeping quiet even if you think this film is over the top. But then, chances are that you may also love it.

Year after year, Salman Khan wins hearts with his mere appearance on the silver screen. And no matter what else a film has got to offer, everything fades in front of the aura of Salman The Superstar, Salman The Superhuman. However, Kabir Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan is not quite in that bracket. It does have Salman, sure, but he's hardly the driving force of the film; contradictory POVs be damned. What shines through more than anything else in this film are two people - Nawazuddin Siddiqui and child artiste Harshaali Malhotra.

Children are strange, surreal beings. Their curious, unworldly eyes, cherubic smiles and carefree approach that neither knows guile nor caution can soften the severest of Scrooges and Selfish Giants. Sometimes it even makes heroes out of them. Kabir Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan cleverly exploits this notion by casting an angel-faced six-year old (Harshaali Malhotra) as the emotional core of its cross-border story. The child's innocent presence aims to mollify the cynical, picky, mindless blockbuster-wary viewer and, consequently, portray her champion, played by Salman Khan, in a favourable light.

When Salman Khan folds his hands in a namaste pose and says, "Jai Shree Ram" in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, he takes his 'Being Human' image to the next level. He says these three words with such sincerity, that it actually shows him in the most unimaginable role : that of a fine actor. Now why would a simple greeting would be termed as acting? Because this is no Aamir Khan with the Mr Holier-Than-Roast image or attitude. This is the Dabangg cop, who shakes his shoulders and cackles like a teenager after cracking crass jokes. Silly behaviour, along with a pair of glares, a moustache, a popular pelvic move and most importantly, his muscles ripping his shirt open - this is what has made Khan an unmatched superstar.