Raees - Review

If you a SRK fan please skip to the last paragraph. For rest read on.

Firstly neither the trailer nor the songs released impressed the movie much. And Rahul Dholakia who won national award for Parzania, directing Shahrukh was a non-beginner. The only appealing thing in the whole movie was the production house. Ritesh and Farhan mostly picked good subjects. So I had my expectations very grounded. 

After sitting through the very interesting first 10 minutes of the movie without Shahrukh's entry I realized that this might turn out to be a great one. Raees does not grow on you. It sucks you into it's world. With plethora of actors like Shahrukh Nawazuddin, Atul Kulkarni, Ayyub etc at your disposal, many a directors falter but Rahul D sticks to his guns pretty firmly and narrates a story that he set out to narrate, very honestly. 

All the actors including Mahira khan and Mohammed Ayyub perform very well. And Sunny Leone can dance too. But Shahrukh and also Nawazuddin take the cake. Their scenes together are a pleasure. Both acted as if they have met their match. It is cinematic ecstasy to say the least, the one that did not happen when Shahrukh and Manoj Bajpai acted together.

The main drawback and main plus point of the movie is it's music. The songs are a drawback but the background score is perfect. It sets the mood right, elevates the scenes well when needed and make you sit on the edge of the seat in tense moments. Art and camera work together pretty well to show us the streets of yesteryears in this period drama. Few scenes of where you hear a street vendor shouting in the background totally unrelated to the scene and a dog barking on the street on the night of a serious scene will surely take you down the memory lane if you grew up in a small town like I did. The pace of the movie is spot on to get you engrossed into the setting. First half moves at break neck speed and second half starts with engrossing scenes spiking the emotions two to three times and then building up well towards the climax. The movie could have done without the tragedy song easily. The emotion was already conveyed well by Shahrukh and Mahira and there was no need of a song there. I have to stop this review here to not spill out anymore spoilers. 

In conclusion, Raees is a very good crime story that is sprinkled well with hero elevation scenes and whistle worthy moments. 

Now this paragraph is for Shahrukh fans. Shahrukh obviously has the more screen time and he is nothing short of brilliant. His close ups, slo-mo shots, his demeanor and whistle worthy dialogues are all a feast. Try and resist from clapping in the "kaun mai ka lal" scene. If you have not watched it yet then you are not a fan, period.