When it comes to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, I am a man of perpetual hope and enthusiasm. Over the last twenty-five years SRK has delivered some iconic performances in films by some of Bollywood's biggest directors, and every time he teases a new product and get a little tingle in my loins. While I may not have been around for his entry into the film business in the early '90s, I've definitely made myself more than familiar with his entire oeuvre over the last dozen or so years. So when I say that I am a fan, it comes from a completely earnest place.
In his latest film, Raees, Khan plays bootlegger Raees Aslaam in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat in the 1980s, at a time when bootlegging was big business. Even today alcohol is banned in different places around India, including Gujurat, and despite this nominal ban, liquor remains a big business. Over the course of an indeterminate, though presumably short, number of years Raees moves from upstart businessman to political powerhouse through his desire to spread his good fortune among the people of his city.
Unfortunately for him, while most politicians and beat cops turn a blind eye to the business, there is one cop with a permanent hard-on for bootleggers, and that is Ambalal Majmudar, played by the dependable Nawazuddin Siddiqui in his first role opposite SRK. The reasoning behind Majmudar's unwavering focus on bringing bootleggers to justice is never quite explained, but thankfully the role is in good hands with Siddiqui who acts circles around everyone else in the film.
I'd love to say that the antagonism between this pair makes for a wonderful cat and mouse game throughout the film, but unfortunately that's not exactly the case. Raees, as the title suggests, is a film all about its central character, and in fact, the real central villain in the film is Raees himself as he can't seem to outrun his own ego and ultimately leads himself into a downfall that Majmudar is just lucky enough to around to take advantage of. Throughout the film we are introduced to all sorts of potential heavies in the form of business competitors, antagonistic politicians, and others, but none of these villains are anywhere near as dangerous to Raees as he is to himself, and putting that much pressure on Shah Rukh Khan to act is a dangerous road to walk.
From the very beginning, Raees was marketed as a throw back picture, a film that was designed and executed to recapture the grit and intensity of late '70s and early '80s Bollywood crime films and particularly those starring Amitabh Bachchan, who makes a second-hand cameo on a cinema screen at one point in the film. The idea of an '80s throwback crime film is an exciting one, even given the ultimate concession that we can nver truly recreate those times, but perhaps at best hope to pay tribute to them. For the most part the film is successful, but where it loses focus it really shows its weaknesses and a large part of the goodwill it borrows from those films gets sapped when it strays from the formula.
Take for example the music, a huge part of any Bollywood mainstream film. In Raees we get at least one major hit from yesteryear, Laila O Laila (from Qurbani) remade into a newer electronic Bolly-disco tune featuring adult film star turned Indian item girl Sunny Leone. Having heard the promos for the film I was not looking forward to the song in the film as it looked like it was to be shoehorned in for the sake of selling soundtrack albums. While that last thought is probably true, the film actually utilizes the song and its placement in the film pretty well, so in spite of the modern instrumentation and pacing, I was happy.
Unfortunately, of the rather frequent musical numbers, only two, the above-mentioned Laila Main Laila and the song that accompanies Raees's introduction to the bootlegging business are of any narrative value. The other songs do nothing more than distract from the tone and story of the film, recklessly reminding us that this is not the '80s and that we are instead stuck with these AM Gold radio songs needed to sell records. Bollywood has no shortage of songs that don't push forward the narrative, however, when those songs are so contrary to the film's vibe and tone, it sticks out like a sore thumb, which is indicative the Raees's greatest flaws.
As much as I like Shah Rukh Khan, he is often his own worst enemy, and though I've certainly seen him worse than this, it's also far from his finest hour. Raees is called on to display a range of emotions from violent anger to romantic joy, to empathy, to bitter regret, and I just don't know that SRK has the tools or the range to make all of these work effectively. Anyone who has seen more than a couple of films has seen all that he has to offer, which is often little more than a collection of rehearsed tics and hysterical head bobbling, all on full display here. A more contained performance would've done a world of good here, but moderation has never been his strong suit.
Where the film does succeed is when it remembers it's raison d'etre. This is a crime film, and when it focuses on the intersection between crime and politics, it is a lot of fun. Any time that Siddiqui appears on screen, which is far too little, the film instantly regains that sense of fun that it loses when it dwells too much on the difficulty of being Raees. There are a few solid action sequences, there are several great interactions between Raees and villains who are not his own ego, and plenty of decent menace dished out by the title character.
Unfortunately, every upside to the film is met with an equally disappointing downside. Since the film is so firmly focused on Raees and his story, pretty much every other character is given short shrift. We briefly engage with a best friend, a wife, a number of politicians, various business associates, and a few cops and none of these characters are ever given enough room to make any kind of significant impact. Even Raees's own child is more of a prop to be wheeled out when he needs to show emotion than a motivating factor behind his actions. I get it, the movie is called Raees, but he still needs to exist in a world populated by at least a couple of people who can be defined by anything other than their relationship to Raees.
In the end, Raees is a sporadically fun, but frequently tedious attempt to reinvigorate the style of films that made Bollywood in the '80s an exciting place to be. I enjoyed the film when it reverted back to its original intentions and whenever Siddiqui appeared on screen to remind me what fun looks like in this world. Perhaps it was a mistake to beleive that a Shah Rukh Khan film would ever be concerned with anything in addition to the appearance of Shah Rukh Khan. Perhaps if I'd put less of my own enthusiasm into what I saw as its potential, this would sound like a more positive review. However, when I take this film and set it side by side with Hrithik Roshan's 2012 attempt to recreate the same kind of tale in Agneepath, it is the latter that stands head and shoulders above, and I like SRK a lot more than I like Roshan. Raees is decent, but with an actor who has shown so much potential in the past, why should we continue to settle for decent?