Zero Review - Shah Rukh’s Impeccable Performance Salvages Zero; A Must Watch For All His Fanatics!

Movie: Zero

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Tigmanshu Dhulia

Rated: 3/5

My Verdict: It is a Movie Worth Watching Only For Shah Rukh Khan And his Performance

There are barely any actors in this industry like Shah Rukh Khan and I am not saying this because I Love him, I am saying this because I mean every word! He has the power to light up the screen with just his presence, he has the tendency to just be the character he is playing effortlessly.

Having said that Zero is a film that doesn’t utilise the actor to his fullest. The undulating script sticks out like a sore thumb.

The film begins with Bauaa Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) and Tigmanshu Dhulia fighting each other in cowboy attires, where Tigmanshu loses to Bauaa – well this is a dream sequence and the reality is in complete contrast to it because it is the 39-year-old Bauaa who is beaten up by his father for being a good for nothing dwarfed spendthrift!

Read : Zero Movie Review : Shah Rukh Khan's Zero Is The Most Impossibly Ridiculous Film Of The Year

Shah Rukh Khan looks the part and delivers his performance with utmost sincerity. He is too good in every frame. His cute dimples, the twinkle in his eyes made my heart skip a beat every time I got lost in them, but the wayward momentum of the narrative was a little to overbearing!

Anand.L.Rai’s signatures were present in the first half especially with the apt usage of the old song in order to depict the earnestness of the situation, the characters and their rustic sense of humour. The film holds on to its structure solely because of Shah Rukh’s performance as the dwarf, he sucks you into the film, he weaves a strange likeability in his act and sustains it to the end. Zeeshan Ayub’s character did not really have much meat in it.

Read : Zero Movie Story - Bauua Singh Height & VFX Cost, Budget in Zero

Anushka Sharma held her part of Aafia Yousefzai quite strongly as the wheelchair bound NSAR scientist who is suffering from cerebral palsy. Katrina Kaif, however as Babita Kumari, the emotionally disturbed actress was a bit too repetitive. Her make up especially her forever kohl -smeared tear laden eyes was a bit too overdone. Her performance too did not hold much water even though a lot of variations could have been brought easily.

The writing of the film is a big let down! The writing by Himanshu Sharma (who had earlier written films like Tanu Weds Manu and Tanu Weds Manu Returns just couldn’t figure out the plot himself. The moral retribution of Bauaa by transforming into this super-human who can bear inhuman pains with a smile on his lip is a bit too far-fetched! The very idea of he being a dwarf and has an incapacity, has been granted a mental tenacity to bear gruelling circumstances is an over-exaggeration of cinematic liberty taken by the writer. The extremely stretched second half is yawn -inducing and it will be hard for the audiences to sit through the torture!

Read: Zero Movie Review - Shah Rukh Khan's Zero Is The Most Impossibly Ridiculous Film Of The Year

In this context I also have to mention one scene in the first half itself where, a serious science conference is going on and Bauaa barges in the hall (notwithstanding the heavy security) and when the cameras are rolling and Aafia is delivering a speech, he loudly calls out to her and challenges her to pick up a pen that he throws on the ground quite confident of the fact that she will not be able to do so and the best part is, Aafia forgets her speech and slithers down from her wheelchair to pick the pen up with all her might much to the amazement of the onlookers!

The only boon was the music by Ajay-Atul. The songs were a balm for the ears!

I don’t really have much to say but if only you are a Shah Rukh Khan fan, you should go and watch the movie just for his sake. It is because of his acting ability and his affable charm, Zero gets salvaged!