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Raees Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan Is On Top Of His Game, Nawazuddin Siddiqui Snaps At His Heels
Raees Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan shrugs off his defining starry mannerisms, embraces physical attributes and accessories designed to convey an air of to-hell-with-the-world insouciance
Saibal Chatterjee | January 25, 2017 13:03 IST
Rating: ***
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Raees Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan Is On Top Of His Game, Nawazuddin Siddiqui Snaps At His Heels" title="Raees Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan Is On Top Of His Game, Nawazuddin Siddiqui Snaps At His Heels" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 580px;">Raees Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan in a still from the film
- Genre:Action
- Cast:Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahira Khan
- Director:Rahul Dholakia
OILERS AHEAD
Harking back to the days of the anti-hero of the pre-Shah Rukh Khan era, Raees is a gangster saga with a contemporary spin. It takes recourse to subtle sleights of new-age style to compensate for what it lacks in terms of thematic essence and narrative pace. It makes a fair fist of the palpably onerous task. Shah Rukh shrugs off his defining starry mannerisms, embraces physical attributes and accessories designed to convey an air of to-hell-with-the-world insouciance, and becomes an effective anchor for a film that hinges overly on his box office clout to carry it across the finishing line.
Raees has passages that might feel a touch ponderous to those seeking tauter twists and turns, but overall the plot rings true all the way through. 
A drama about a resolute cop on the trail of a wily 1980s Gujarat crime lord who rises from the ranks and defies the constraints clamped by prohibition laws to become the state's undisputed hooch king, Raees captures the period and spatial details with diligence and dexterity.
Add to that the fascinating duet struck up by Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, both tempering their individual acting styles to seek a meeting ground, Raees becomes a treat to watch even when the film isn't exactly throbbing with energy. 
For Parzania and Lamhaa director Rahul Dholakia, Raees might be markedly unfamiliar territory, but he doesn't let that fact undermine the tangibility of the content and its context. The balance that he achieves lends the film sustained solidity.
Dholakia keeps the action largely rooted in the chosen milieu while making way for ingredients aimed at upping the dramatic pitch.
There are moments where the overlong film seems to make rough weather of combining two creative impulses - the big and the bold on one hand and the restrained and the rugged on the other - but the two principal actors make Raees rather easy to watch. 
SRK is on top of his game here, recalling his Chak De India! performance in the process. With an effortless actor like Nawazuddin Siddiqui snapping at his heels, the lead actor is always on his toes. The modulations that SRK brings to the act are impressive not only on the level of craft but also in relation to the layers they add to the conflicted character.
Nawazuddin, in the middle of a red-hot streak, operates in a totally different zone. He digs his teeth deep into his meaty role with customary elan and delivering a dazzling performance.
Harking back to the days of the anti-hero of the pre-Shah Rukh Khan era, Raees is a gangster saga with a contemporary spin. It takes recourse to subtle sleights of new-age style to compensate for what it lacks in terms of thematic essence and narrative pace. It makes a fair fist of the palpably onerous task. Shah Rukh shrugs off his defining starry mannerisms, embraces physical attributes and accessories designed to convey an air of to-hell-with-the-world insouciance, and becomes an effective anchor for a film that hinges overly on his box office clout to carry it across the finishing line.
Raees has passages that might feel a touch ponderous to those seeking tauter twists and turns, but overall the plot rings true all the way through.
Raees Movie Review: Mahira Khan in a still from the film
Add to that the fascinating duet struck up by Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, both tempering their individual acting styles to seek a meeting ground, Raees becomes a treat to watch even when the film isn't exactly throbbing with energy.
Raees Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan in a still from the film
Dholakia keeps the action largely rooted in the chosen milieu while making way for ingredients aimed at upping the dramatic pitch.
There are moments where the overlong film seems to make rough weather of combining two creative impulses - the big and the bold on one hand and the restrained and the rugged on the other - but the two principal actors make Raees rather easy to watch.
Raees Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan in a still from the film
SRK is on top of his game here, recalling his Chak De India! performance in the process. With an effortless actor like Nawazuddin Siddiqui snapping at his heels, the lead actor is always on his toes. The modulations that SRK brings to the act are impressive not only on the level of craft but also in relation to the layers they add to the conflicted character.
Nawazuddin, in the middle of a red-hot streak, operates in a totally different zone. He digs his teeth deep into his meaty role with customary elan and delivering a dazzling performance.
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