Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Mahira Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Atul Kulkarni, Sheebha Chaddha & Sunny Leone
Banner: Red Chillies Entertainment & Excel Entertainment
Music: Ram Sampath
Cinematography: KU Mohanan
Editor: Deepa Bhatia
Writers: Rahul Dholakia, Harit Mehta, Ashish Vashi & Niraj Shukla
Producers: Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar & Gauri Khan
Director: Rahul Dholakia
Tagline: 'Raees' fails to Rule!
Story:
Raees (Shah Rukh Khan) joins the illegal bootlegging with Jairaj (Atul Kulkarni) gang and slowly develops his own business. Raees comes out of Jairaj gang and starts his own illegal liquor business. As days pass by, Raees becomes the dominant person in the market. Majumdhaar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is the new police officer in Gujarat who kept an eye on Raees and starts destroying his kingdom. With the support from CM, Raees becomes powerful and Mujamdhaar tastes a defeat, but he constantly looks for an opportunity to take advantage over Raees. In the meantime, Raees enters politics, and his business starts declining. What happens next? Did Mujumdhaar win over Raees? What happened in the end? Forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
Shah Rukh Khan impressed as Raees as usual. With his performance and dialogue delivery, Shah Rukh has sent a clear indication to all the fans that he is still the king of box office. He carried the film on his shoulders till the end. His screen presence is unbeatable. From the beginning to the end, it was an all-round performance from Shah Rukh Khan.
The female lead Mahira Khan is awful. She has nothing to do in the film except to come on the screen at times for the emotional scenes and songs. She is not the usual kind of heroine we usually get to experience in Shah Rukh Khan films.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is at his usual best. The selection of Nawazuddin is perfect, and he gave a perfect fight to Shah Rukh regarding performances. If not for Nazwazuddin in the film, Raees could have been incomplete.
Atul Kulkarni as Jairaj is good in his role. Narendra Jha and Mohammed Zeeshan made their presence felt.
Analysis:
Raees is one film that does not lived up to its genre. The film which is said to be a crime thriller lacks the gripping crime thriller episodes. The film has an old story and it's completely predictable. When this is the case, we expect a engaging screenplay. The film's narration is weak. To sum up the film in simple lines, this is a struggle of a illegal business man in life to overcome various situations.
There are hardly three to four interesting episodes in the film and without these, it's completely an ordinary film. The songs are good but they don't come as per the situations. The director wasted time in developing an already developed plot. There are a lot of deviations in revealing the plot scene by scene. There are ups and downs in the screenplay. Even the director failed in designing interesting characterisations. Except for Shah Rukh Khan's charcter, no other character was designed in a way that we could talk about those even after waking out of the theatre.
For a film like Raees, either the screenplay should be engaging or the characters should be intriguing. Both missed in the movie making it a mediocre attempt. The only saving is Shah Rukh Khan. On a relieving note, Raees is a much better film than Dilwale and Fan.
Merits:
- Shah Rukh Khan Screen Presence
- Music & BGM
- Cinematography
De-merits:
- Not Many Powerful Sequences
- Weak Narration
- Screenplay
Music:
The music scored by Ram Sampath was good and pleasant. All the songs in the film were good. The background score is an additional highlight of the movie. The BGM has lifted up the film very well.
Other Technical Departments:
The cinematography of the movie was excellent. The framing and visuals are grand. The editing could have been better, and as the narration was weak and slow, the film appears to be boring with a good runtime. The fights have been designed in an engaging manner. The artwork was good. The technical department has worked at their best and contributed to a good output. The production values are grand.
iQlik Verdict:
Raees film does not offer anything new or fresh. An old story has been presented with a weak screenplay, and it ruined the interest of the audiences. Promoted as a crime thriller, Raees lacks the required crime and thrilling elements that could keep viewers glued to the screens. On the whole, the film is a relief from Shah Rukh Khan's failure streak.
For Fans: Not a Great Feast but surely a decent watching experience and after all, it is Shah Rukh Khan's film.
For Movie Goers: An Average film which could have been much better. Not a boring one, though!