King Khan? Nah!!. Review on Shah Rukh Khan

Prelude

Let me clarify one thing before going to the review, I'm not a Shahrukh hater! amd don't give my review a thumbs down just because I said all these about Shahrukh

This is just my opinion on his acting over the past decade.I'm a movie freak, I have watched a lot of cinema, true meaningful cinema from around the world, that I feel pity towards all these guys making movies in India.

Hoping that we get to see different cinema on Indian screens soon, Black

has shown some light, lets hope the light stays.

My observations / review

I was wondering if there are just two kinds of movies that are successful in Hindi, the Shahrukh Khan movies and the skin flicks. Occasionally there are a few that don't fit into any of the two categories and still succeed, that is however a rarity. Its very disappointing, for a country that produces the maximum number of movies every year, we almost have no quality of story or plot to boast of.

I have begun to think that maybe it is because of Shahrukh Khan, maybe not!. If you look at the movies over the past decade that have succeeded, a considerable amount of movies belong to King Khan(as they call him). Its a sad fact, only because if thats the case, people will start making the Shahrukh Khan kind of movies. People who attempt to make different movies, often fail because the majority of the audience (the family audience) watch only those mushy, Chopra family / Johar family / Shahrukh Khan kind of movies.

As a result it sort of feels unsafe to make a movie that does not have elements from any of the above. Take away Ram Gopal Verma, Subash Ghai and a couple of others from Hindi Cinema and it will be doomed, Hindi Cinema will become as predictable as sun rise.

His Acting

Shahrukh is a good actor but he is not great and definitely not the best India can offer. I feel over the past decade there has not been a wee bit of improvement in his acting.If you take any of the following movies (or any other Shahrukh movies for that matter) DDLJ, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, KKKG or Kal ho na Ho etc you cannot spot even the minutest difference in his acting. Its the same acting, same mannerisms, same everything. It is just plain ridiculous, if you show clips of Shahrukh from all the above movies to someone who has not seen any of the movies, that person will feel its the same movie. Such is his performance, some people call it his style but to me it is not, he is not learning.

Take Hollywood for that matter, even the best of lookers are great actors.Tom Cruise, Di Caprio, Jude Law etc. They take so much pain in doing different things, take Di Caprio, Catch me if you can and to a large extent The Aviator just shows how much varied personas he can bring on screen. I don't think Shahrukh can do any justice to any role other than the Johar films or Chopra films or Aziz Mirza films. Take Ashoka for that matter, it was plain horrendous, his acting.

Everybody enjoys his movies, I do too. But over the years it has become monotonous, Kal Ho Na Ho was the threshold for me. He was unbearable in that movie, Saif was a saving grace for that movie.Now again with Veer Zaara, I don't know how many movies more or how many decades more, that we will have to endure the same Shahrukh.And gosh, I don't even want to talk about the recent Santro Ad. If ever I had wanted to kill somebody, it was him after watching the Santro Ad.

His Personality

No matter how predictable his acting is, he has evolved very well as person. He is a very intelligent man and that shows in any interaction with the press or media. He has the charm and charisma one would associate with a leading movie Hero. He dresses well in real life.

Padma Shree award

I guess by now, you know what I'm going to say. Only one word, 'ridiculous'.

The future (my hopes)

He should stop making films with Johar and Chopra families. He should atleast act in a couple of movies that is not a love story.He should work with new directors and try to improve his acting(God knows how!).

Bottom line

He might be the King Khan of Bollywood (commercial cinema), but he is nowhere near the palace when it comes to versatility.

the enigma

PS: All the Shahrukh fans out there, do forgive me! Just so that this review is not totally negative, here are some of his movies I liked, DDLJ, KKHH, Dil Se and of course Kabhie Haan Kabhie Naa.