Raees: SRK's Raees to the top

Movie: Raees

Genre: Crime, Drama

Run Time: 2 hours 41 minutes

Director: Rahul Dholakia

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahira Khan

Rating: 6.5/10

Raees is a raw and earthy piece of entertainment which works only because Shah Rukh Khan is at the crux of it.

Plot:

The movie is based on the bustling alcohol smuggling business in the streets of Gujarat somewhere between the 1970s and 80s. Raees is a young 10-12 year old boy who is the sole child of a single Muslim mother who struggles to make ends meet by selling empty alcohol bottles for a living. He develops a spur for defying the law early on by starting to smuggle small bottles of alcohol across localities within the state to help his mother earn. The amount of bottles smuggled grows with time, and so does Raees. All grown up now, he quits his present stint to start a smuggling dhanda of his own, and from that point on it's all about Raees's success growing and spreading all across Gujarat, while having the police and the government in his pocket, with only ACP Majmudar(Nawazuddin Siddiqui) trying to bring him down.

What's to like:

The making of the movie has a very raw and earthy feeling to it, which has been lacking in commercial Bollywood cinema for a while now. Some scenes are a little hard on the eyes, but the grandeur of K.U. Mohanan's cinematography helps you make your peace with it. The remixed version of the old classic Laila Main Laila adds soul and spice to the movie, and it's Bollywood entertainment at its best. The action, at least in the second half of the movie, gives you a certain kind of adrenaline rush and does justice to Raees's Miyanbhai character. The movie contains some hard-hitting dialogues which will wash over you like a wave (Example: Din aur raat toh logon ke hote hain saheb. Sheron ka toh zamaana hota hai) and the fiery chemistry between Shah Rukh and Nawazuddin is to die for.

What's not to like:

First things first, Mahira Khan is all kinds of unnecessary in the movie. Her presence not only makes Raees look like an aggressive freak towards the end, but it over-complicates the story as well. The script has no real substance to it, with Raees jumping from drug-lord to politician to terrorist for no apparent reason. Shah Rukh's acting as Raees is hollow and unconvincing whenever he's not being the Miyanbhai of the state, which means you should expect no real emotion or conviction from his character. Nawazuddin's character sketch was poor and left unattended in the second half, almost as if he was doing us a favour by reappearing in the story several times over.

Why you should watch it:

Watch it, because it's Shah Rukh Khan and no one else. He adds weight and substance to the screen, and he makes for the perfect Gunda. Everything said and done, one thing is for certain; there is no other actor in Bollywood who can pull off a role like this in a script so horrible and STILL make it work.