It’s tough being Salman Khan. The superstar, over the last 35-odd years, has carved out a career that reads more like an NREGA scheme. Besides launching and relaunching brothers Arbaaz and Sohail countless times with little or no result, Salman has, through the decades, been supporting the careers of many. You know the names. Maybe that’s what ‘Being Human’ is all about.

With Antim, now playing in cinemas, Salman attempts one more time — after Loveyatri three years ago — to showcase brother-in-law Aayush Sharma. Aayush, married to the actor’s sister Arpita, was rejected as a romantic hero. So, in Antim, directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, Aayush buffs up, acquires a perplexing tan, narrows his perpetually kohl-lined eyes and plays an uneducated village boy who moves to the big city and becomes a dreaded don, even as he loses out on family and friends, and more importantly, his innocence and peace.

Now what does that remind us of? Manjrekar’s own 1999 film Vaastav. The paradigmatic gangster film gave a fresh lease of life to Sanjay Dutt’s career and even today, serves as a seminal template for films made in the genre. But with Antim, Manjrekar serves up every cliche in the gangster film manual, jamming in everything from displacement of farmers to corruption in politics.

In fact, Antim is a curious mix of Vaastav and Dabangg. While Manjrekar himself pops up every now and then as the drunkard father of the heroine — in Dabangg, it was Sonakshi Sinha’s Rajjo, here it is Manda, played by Mahima Makwana — Salman himself walks in and out as a cop. But his Rajveer Singh is no Chulbul Pandey. Despite a dramatic entry, much like Dabangg, in which Rajveer is shown pummeling a bunch of goons to pulp, this man is no fun. There are no one-liners, no slipping of RayBans on the collar, no threats of ‘chhed kar denge’ and ‘dho dalenge’, no Zandu Balm, no Munni badnaam, no Fevicol, no photo....

Even though his screen time is longer than one would have expected, Salman struts in and out of the frame like he’s just shot for Bigg Boss five minutes ago, slipped on a cop’s uniform and walked on to the sets of Antim. And the only reason he’s perhaps playing a Sikh in the film is that he can talk about brotherhood and benevolence.

Salman’s function anyway is to prop up Aayush, who, to be honest, isn’t half bad. It’s just that the plot is so predictable, the tropes are so done to death and the players such cardboard cutouts, that Antim ends up being as engaging as a sommelier session is to a teetotaller.

An all-you-can-kill buffet forms the core of Antim. There is nothing much beyond that to be honest. As long as Salman is on screen, the film is fairly watchable, and a face-off between him and Aayush is largely well done, though Salman’s abs look suspiciously VFX-generated. Jisshu Sengupta plays a goon, a rival of sorts to Aayush’s Rahuliya, but the role doesn’t have anything for the actor to build on.

In the end, all we can figure is that this won’t be Salman’s ‘antim’ attempt to prop up the almost-dead careers of friends and family. And that, unfortunately for us, is the final truth.

More about the film

Antim: The final truth (U/A)

Director: Mahesh Manjrekar

Cast: Salman Khan, Aayush Sharma, Mahima Makwana, Sachin Khedekar, Sayaji Shinde, Jisshu Sengupta

Running time: 142 minutes