Dear Shah Rukh Khan, Wrong 'Story Telling' Was Least Of Zero’s Problems, Take It From A Fan

As someone who started watching films and falling in love with the magic of cinema in the late 90s, the space you have occupied in my life is difficult to express in words. If Bollywood was a religion, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham would be my Bible.

You have been the lens through which I have watched Bollywood and fell in love with it over and over again, thus my fandom for you makes my expectations sky high. But even if my expectations from Zero were not as high as your stature, I would have been disappointed, because the biggest issue with Zero was not a wrong story or wrong story-telling, it was you taking your fans for granted.

Before Zero, the few films that worked were Chennai Express, Happy New Year and Dilwale, that is if you consider the overseas collection. These films relied almost entirely on your charisma and appealed to your fans who want to see Shah Rukh doing what he does best. You romanced the ladies, opened your arms with Swiss Alps in the background, cracked a couple of witty one-liners and beat up the baddies in the end. However, since then, films like Raees, Jab Harry Met Sejal and Fan which presented you in a different light, mostly failed to do well at the box-office. Thus, it is understandable why you would want to do something like Zero.

But, instead of understanding that it is content that the audience is seeking from you, what you served us was a film that, again, relies on your charms and the things that you have been doing over the years.  I refuse to believe that someone as experienced as you, did not see the loopholes in the script. There was perhaps this confidence that if you couple great VFX with your characteristic charm, people will not notice the absolutely ridiculous plot of the film.

We are happy that you addressed the issue when you accepted that something indeed went wrong with Zero, but story-telling was least of Zero’s problems. Firstly, Zero was hardly a story that needed to be told and secondly, despite being your 'labor of love', it was a classic case of you relying on your antics more than relying on the content. Failing to understand what the audience expects out of you is a mistake that someone at your level simply can’t afford to make.