Bodyguard: The 2011 Bollywood Film

This was the official website of the 2011 Bollywood, Bodyguard. The content/ pictures below is from the site's 2011 archived pages and revews from Rotten Tomato and IMBD.

PLOT:

When it comes to being punctual and doing his duties perfectly, Lovely Singh is unmatchable. Taking great pride in what he does, he spares no effort in giving his everything to his profession. Summoned for an assignment of guarding Divya, the daughter of Sartaj Rana, a business tycoon, Lovely Singh accompanies her to her campus, but ends up rubbing her the wrong way with his over-protective nature and paranoia about security. She finds him to be a major obstacle in leading a regular campus life. To throw him off-track and get him out of the way, she comes up with a 'master-plan'- that of trapping him in a fake love affair. --

Rating:NR
Genre: Action & Adventure , Drama , Romance
Directed By:Siddique
Written By:Siddique , J.P. Chowksey , Kiran Kotrialv In Theaters:Aug 30, 2011
Limited On DVD: Dec 25, 2011
Box Office:$1,174,189.00
Runtime: 155 minutes
Studio:Reliance Big Pictures

 

TomatoMeter

CRITICS  40%  |  AUDIENCE 44%

 

REVIEWS  CRITICS

September 2, 2011

Nick Schager Village Voice   Top Critic

Imperviousness to crotch shots—his nether-regions actually deflate projectile soccer balls!—is merely one of the superhuman skills exhibited by Salman Khan throughout Bodyguard, in which the Bollywood megastar plays the titular protector of wealthy college student Divya (Kareena Kapoor). Introduced goofily flexing his biceps and whistling during a narcissistic song-and-dance extravaganza, Khan's Lovely Singh is a no-nonsense tough guy who fells featureless villains with videogame-style dropkicks and roundhouses. Frustrated by Lovely's omnipresence and eager to distract him, Divya begins posing as his secret cell-phone admirer. Yet after witnessing him murder an army of her would-be attackers, she falls head over heels for him, thus creating a tricky scenario marked by squishy amour, Matrix-derivative CG combat, and—via portly Tsunami (Rajat Rawail)—literally and figuratively broad comedy. The overweight, gays and little people are cheerfully mocked while writer/director Siddique ratchets up his story's disparate comedy-romance-action elements to an insanely over-the-top degree. Even more than its overwrought music-video numbers and needlessly complicated finale, Khan ups the movie's ridiculousness, coming across as a cartoonishly heroic clown from the moment he steps on a rake and it smashes him squarely in the face, to a climactic showdown marked by a gushing water pipe conveniently blasting off his shirt.

 


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He’s Always Around, Showing Off His Muscles

August 31, 2011

Andy Webster  New York Times  Top Critic

The Hindi-language film “Bodyguard” has nothing to do with the   Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner love story from 1992, though it does concern an attractive woman and a man hired to protect her, and is a towering geyser of sentiment. But it’s a bit closer to Jason Statham’s “Transporter” movies, with plenty of over-the-top fight choreography. Except that the male lead isn’t tearing across the countryside in a black Audi. And there’s frustrated ardor. And music-video-style production numbers.

The barrel-chested Lovely Singh (Salman Khan) is a ramrod-straight protector hired by a tycoon (Raj Babbar) to attend to his precocious daughter, Divya (a one-dimensional Kareena Kapoor), at college. Annoyed by his humorless, unflagging devotion to duty, she resolves, with her best friend, Maya (the beguiling Hazel Keech), to distract him by posing as a secret admirer (with an untraceable number) on his cellphone.

But soon her deception lands Lovely and Divya in hot water with her father’s underworld enemies, for reasons not elucidated, and imperils their inevitable romance. This grants Lovely the chance to pummel a horde of scowling grunts in a frenzy of whiplash editing and over-amped sound effects before returning to the fraught courtship.

Mr. Khan, seasoned Bollywood beefcake, is a well-muscled hunk who doesn’t take himself too seriously in fight scenes. (Like Mr. Statham in “Transporter” mode he manages to doff his shirt in mid-brawl, which prompted howls of delight at the screening I attended.) If only the film’s archly slick director, Siddique, had adopted the same winking attitude toward the romantic arc. A twist near the end sends this contrived movie into a maudlin stratosphere from which it doesn’t recover. But at least, in Ms. Keech’s supporting presence, understated yet palpable, we sense a performer of emerging, and remarkable, star power.

BODYGUARD

Opened on Wednesday nationwide.

Written and directed by Siddique; director of photography, Sejal Shah; edited by Sanjay Sankla; music by Sandeep Shirodkar; art direction by Shailesh Mahadik and Angelica Monica Bhowmick; costumes by Alvira Agnihotri, Ashley Rebello and Manish Malhotra; produced by Alvira Agnihotri and Atul Agnihotri; released by Reliance Big Pictures. In Hindi, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 32 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Salman Khan (Lovely Singh), Kareena Kapoor (Divya Rana), Raj Babbar (Sartaj Rana) and Hazel Keech (Maya).

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September 7, 2011

Maitland McDonagh  Film Journal International

A romantic action picture whose shifts of tone are abrupt even by Bollywood standards, this spin on the 1992 Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston movie about a bodyguard who falls for his difficult charge is silly and derivative, but sneakily entertaining non

The misleadingly named Lovely Singh (Salman Khan) was born to adversity, delivered shortly after his mother was seriously injured in the car crash that killed his father, a bodyguard employed by wealthy, Jaisinghpur-based businessman Sartaj Rana (Raj Babbar).

Lovely eventually followed in his father's footsteps and now works for Tiger Security, a high-end supplier of personal protection to the rich and famous. So he can hardly refuse when Sartaj calls looking for someone to guard his daughter, Divya (Kareena Kapoor). No one has actually threatened her, but Sartaj did some business with Mr. Mahtra (Aditya Pancholi), who turned out to have some shady associates, and Sartaj wants to be sure that Divya is under close watch for the next few weeks. Once she graduates from Symbiosis International College, Divya is getting married in England and will be safely out of harm's way.

But what should be a straightforward gig is complicated by the fact that the pampered, willful Divya doesn't want a bodyguard, especially a humorless muscleman who follows her everywhere, even into the ladies’ room (cue the cute, squealing coeds). Against the advice of her level-headed friend and classmate Maya (Hazel Keech), Divya devises exactly the kind of plan to distract her uniformed babysitter you'd expect from a spoiled rich girl: She calls Lovely's cell-phone and pretends to be "Chhaya," a shy femme fatale who loves him from afar. Wacky complications ensue, but take a dark turn when the stoic Lovely starts to fall for his mysterious caller.

Though lazily plotted—once you start asking questions, you're lost—Bodyguard gets better as it goes along. Divya is too immature and shallowly self-centered to be a tragic (or even tragic-lite) heroine, but she's the sole engineer of her own third-act unhappiness—which gives the thoroughly generic rom-com-with-guns machinations a little individuality—and there's a clever twist hidden in the voiceover narration. The musical numbers are energetic and colorful, and the first is briefly touched by genius: Choreographers Ganesh Acharya and

Vishnudeva actually give Khan's flexing biceps their own little solo.

This is director Siddique's third version of the same movie, following the 2010 Malayalam-language original and the 2011 Tamil remake; a fourth version, in Telugu, is in the work.

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REVIEWS AUDIENCE

***** Sara L February 26, 2015

In retrospect, as I refer back to the last week, I watched a movie which was named more descriptively "Bodyguard". I verily like the trailer first because it captured my inner interest in movie. However, when my friend also recommended the movie to me, accordingly, I checked upon some reviews as well. People relayed on positive feedbacks about it. I used assumptions to discover the relevant theme of my choice and it was basically romantic-comedy movie. Nonetheless, I disguised that some suspense was mingled in the story line too. I had ultimate anticipations from the movie because, a favorite actor of mine acted throughout. The expectancy strain and a strike of pantomime made the movie catchy extravagantly. The movie was released on the last day of 2014, placed in India. Its prominent director is a Siddique. It received a huge response from fans and eventually became blockbuster this year. It fits for every age, yet everybody loves the actor and the movie by itself. I would forward it with an approval as being appropriate for a particular purpose or role that people tend to choose. As well as recommend for a great amusement with a family and kids.

In the guise of initiating the topic further, the movie starts with a security guard "lovely Singh" who takes a great pride in what he does. He is more passionate about it more than anyone. He is looking after his boss's daughter "Ria". She lives in a city with her best friend for completing studies. Ria obtains a cranky and a small amount of credulous attitude. Lovely Singh basically gives defense training to Ria. During training, she falls in love with him and calls continuously, but does not tell her real name; she mentioned him as Chaya. At first, he is very fed up from the calls, as time passes; he attains the mutual feelings by getting used to it. They do not meet each other after training at all. When they make a decision to tie the knot, meanwhile, Ria's maid listens to their conversations and acquaints instantly her father. He rejects the daughter's idea since Lovely Singh fails to meet the acquirement of high standard. Apparently, she can't go against the rules, so she sent the best friend and he starts thinking of her as Ria. However, He gets married to her and she dies after 2 years with a proof of a diary leaving behind. She admits her betrayal to the friend (Ria) which makes her a dynamic character. She requests her son to bring back together Ria and lovely Singh. They go to meet Ria, yet he acknowledges astonishing news that she is not married. Later on, her father contemplates the daughter's love and he allows them to be in the relationship. They live happily after even along the fact that he saw the diary after his son threw it away.

So far, the movie met my expectations. I loved the end as most everybody in the theater. There was a lot of clapping. The director's attitude was to present the story with a combination of basically humor and romance. He chose suitable places for every scene. The weakness in the storyline is that the father is unaware of where his son got the dairy? Also, the movie followed the same places for the songs. My friends really loved the movie. They didn't criticize anything in the entire movie and rated it very highly. I was rather surprised since they always have opinions about everything. For instance, when I showed them what I considered our favorite round dog bed style covered with a designer fabric that perfectly matched our living room decor, one criticism was that people might think the dog bed was just a large floor pillow and use it to sit on, perhaps getting dog fur on their clothing. I said I would keep that in mind when I had guests over, but since the dog loved it so much, Maxie would most likely be laying upon it. And sure enough, when I had another friend over and she saw the dog relaxing on his round pillow dog bed, she turned to me and asked if I allowed the dog to sleep on all our lovely livingroom floor pillows! Boy you can't win. She actually laughed, however, when she learned it was the dog's  bed. She  ended up buying a dog bed from the same e commerce site where we had bought ours. She loved the idea of a dog bed that had strikingly lovely fabric. Update: we recently streamed Bodyguard the other night and it was just an enjoyable as the first time. I think we are just pushovers for Bollywood films.

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Rahima D *½ March 9, 2013

stars are only for "Lovely Singh" and the one great song "teri meri prem kahani"

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Vikas A ½* January 24, 2013

half a star for the "okay" story. waaaay over the top action. no plot. 2 1/2 hours of nonsensity going on on the screen.

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Sanjaya P *January 17, 2013

no comments for Bollywood movies. :P

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Priya S ½December 16, 2012

another worst movie, but salman's starpower brings in the money

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Adam H ***** December 10, 2012

Very funny and Kareena Kapoor looks gorgeous as always

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Ganesh S. Ganesh S. ½* October 25, 2012

Bodyguard is best-avoided.Salman Khan just wanders around Kareena Kapoor and bashes up goons.While Kareena Kapoor has nothing to do.

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Tauqir A * August 13, 2012

Waste of Time. Nothing new. Same old Bollywood stuff. Moreover title is misleading . It gives an impression of Action movie but a bore romcom.

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Michael N ** August 13, 2012

Of all the action,comedy,Salmanisms,drama,tears,one is for Kareena and the other for the fat guy.

See it if you like chasing wild geese stories.

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Ankit D *** ½July 7, 2012

finally got time to watch this movie.... way better than had expected!!!

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Kshitij S June 12, 2012

Give me my money back

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Hamad S ½June 1, 2012

FUCKING HORRIBLE....The worst 90 seconds of my life!

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TaniaRina P *** ½April 4, 2012

Interesting love story plot...

IMDB REVIEWS

Storyline
Reading from a diary, a lad comes to know about a nobleman from Jaisinghpur, Sartaj Rana, who invited the wrath of the Mhatre brothers, Ranjan and Vikrant, by sending Lovely Singh to free abducted women bound for Thailand. Feeling threatened, he hires Lovely as a bodyguard for his collegian daughter, Divya, and her friend, Maya. Divya does not appreciate being followed around by Lovely and creates a fictional woman, Chhaya, who distracts him by repeatedly phoning him and telling him that she loves him. Lovely believes this person to be real and falls in love. In a bar, Ranjan's brother attacks Divya and is killed by Lovely - setting into motion a chain of events that will pit Lovely not only against the enraged Mhatre brothers, but also against Sartaj himself, who believes that Lovely is attempting to elope with his daughter.

 

User Reviews

 
Huge Disappointment
15 October 2011 | by amitshetty73 (India)
Before release I had massive expectations from this movie considering it had salman khan who is in golden form, top actress kareena kapoor and hit music ! Bodyguard was huge letdown - as nothing is good in this movie except music ! Performances - Salman Khan is not up to mark in this movie. He was average. Hope he does better in next movie. Kareena Kapoor was okay. Villains were funny than scaring. Rest provide average support except Rajat Rawail who was horrible.
Story, Direction all were pedestrian. Music was highlight of movie.Especially Teri Meri And I Love You song.
Salman is having great run but such movie will hamper his golden run as audiences today are unforgiving if u gave them bad products. Wish best for him in Ek Tha Tiger and Sharekhan and he will come back to form again.
In Other Words, Bodyguard is huge disappointment 3/10

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Just Bakwas
*  Author: arvindkrb from India
3 September 2011
If you are a die hard Salman Khan fan ..... then you may like this movie....otherwise it is just CRAP!!!!!!
It looked better than his previous movies..... but I was totally wrong.....It was a whole lot worse.

This movie has the Worst ending ever............unjustifiable dialogues(so what u can expect from a Salman khan movie)......
just look at some of Salman khans previous movies..... Wanted,Dabaang,Ready,and now Bodyguard....all looks each others sequels.... nothing new..... nothing innovative......weird dance steps invented by Salman himself.....
Due to people like these......level of Bollywood movies is declining day by day....
Bollywood people used to make remakes of Hollywood movies..... and now they have started to make remakes of South Indian movies..... It is a step backwards.....
Please don't watch this movie......Waste of time and money

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Unbelievably intolerable
3/10
Author: Tathagat Verma from Mumbai, India
31 August 2011
Though a reasonable storyline, the screenplay doesn't do justice. Very ordinary performances. Over the top actions with unjustifiable dialogues, which is a very common thing for a Salman Khan movie; as is expected. Worth a watch if you are a die-hard fan. Music is pretty good. So is the choreography, especially the Katrina Kaifeng sequence.
The story starts with unquestionable irregularities buts cuts it pretty okay for about half an hour with a typical Salman entry as has become quite often in his movies. The second us pretty descent when compared to entire length. The music, specially the "I love you" number has been picturised well. The movie wasn't too long and the plot wasn't stretched either which is good thing and goes in the favor of the director. Unfortunately the same can't said for the direction of scenes itself. Overall an okay-one-time watch; then again, maybe not.

Overall an okay or one time watch. Then again, maybe not.

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If There Were A Nobel For Movies That Make You Want To Die This Wins It All
1/10  Author: ram-c-madan from India
10 October 2011
Body guard is undoubtedly *the worst* movie of all time (including Tollywood Hollywood and any other wood u can think of) .. this is one movie which deserves a negative rating ! I wish people wouldn't be thins kind with ratings.. This movie doesn't even come close to being rational . A person with the tiniest of logic would want to pour acid in his eyes to relieve himself of the pain he just endured ... the movie has the random-est of beings and *the most terrible* ending of all time ! If i could i would go slap all those producers and action directors that directed this piece of cauliflower yes this movie is that bad ! The toy helicopters and flying actors just add to the misery of the rational audience . To sum it all I wouldn't watch this movie again even if i were paid a 1000 bucks for it !

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Lousy screeplay, bad directing, wrong casting...and, too many clowns
Author: rightwingisevil from United States
3 September 2011
This movie is for the brain dead. Spent so much money and manpower to make this poorly crafted movie was absolutely unworthy. Salman Khan is still a quite good action actor, but he has played so many similar superman-like roles in so many similar movies, I doubt he'd still enjoy this kind of formulaic role. Being an action hero character must be very tiresome, that might be the reason why Sean Connery refused to play the 007 after several similar no-depth, no soul killing machine for the British secret service. Salman Khan should also take a serious consideration of his acting career, because he's getting old and getting heavier. Asking Kareena Kapoor to play the daughter of a super-rich and super powerful man was actually a very bad casting job. Because she's too old to play a college student, and her acting talent is not quite boundless but limited. I've seen many of her movies, but never considered her a good enough actor.
This screenplay was so poorly put together, full of jerk and clown-like characters, the directing obviously did a very poor job too. The most serious problem of this movie is such kind of storyline, scenario and plot have already been repeated so many times, there's indeed no need to add another bomber into this same old same old crap.

BodyguardTheFilm.com