Raees Review

SRK plays the title character in Raees who is a bootlegger and a smuggler and always one step ahead of the law.

I always try to talk about positives before the negatives, but in this film, there are VERY few positives.

Other than the 60s to 70s setting and the introduction scene of nawazuddin, there wasn’t much good or innovative in this film.

SRK as always is consistent in the film, he doesn’t give bad performances, he was good even in RA.One, so no complains about his acting as such. Some of the dialogs, (already made famous by the trailers) are a bit punchy, but they end in the first half, no good catchy dialogs in the rest of the film.

So moving on to the negatives,

The movie is supposed to be set in the 60 or 70s, the cars and technology show it such, but mahira khan’s intro scene has 1987’s Mr. India’s song in it. Then later in the film kala phattar is being played in the background. So bloody decide if this is the 90s or 70s or purposely ageless?

OK, the setting doesn’t matter to most audiences, but such immersion was achieved in special 26, Rustom, Parineeta etc. So why not now in 2017? Then there are the super duper moronic stunts and action scenes, possibly choreographed by a 5-year-old with no understanding of physics or logic. If this was a super-hero film, all is forgiven, but this isn’t Captain America, it’s a gritty realistic cinema.

Now we come to the waste of time songs, of which there are not that many, but every song slows the film and drags it down. Except the Laila mein Laila, which does serve a plot point in the film and is the only entertaining song in the whole film.

Coming to the story and plot, this film is ALL over the place, it cannot decide if the story is about a smuggler, the cop, their clash or a Jeffrey archer type story of a poor boy growing rich! Instead of character growth, you get stagnation, Raees as a character is the same from a child till the end… no progression at all… same goes for every other character in the film, they remain the same from their introduction till the end of the film.

The let-down here is the direction, this same film could have been amazing and riveting, but the director doesn’t know how to create moments or scenes or have any impact at all!

Long story short, I won’t recommend this film, if you are nostalgic about gangster cinema, re-watch D company, once upon a time in Mumbai (part 1) or even the original Don. This film bored me to tears in the last 35 minutes of predictability and cliché…

Rating : 4.5/10. SRK is good in the film, one or two good scenes. Overall it’s an inconsistent snooze fest.