The Khans have a legacy of carrying film around on their shoulders, we saw it with Sultan, Dangal and now its SRK`s turn to do the same. SRK after a brief good hearted dude in Dear Zindagi is back as Raees a bloody gangster who does real bad stuff for a good cause. Raees is typical Bollywood flick, its script tweaked from the 80`s to be only loaded with commercial aspects of modern day cinema. For once SRK is not in his usual style of opened hands leaning to his right, instead builds on his macho to do some thrashing around. The ever talented Nawazuddin Siddique almost steals the limelight from the Baadshah at many times with his wit and acting.

Set in Gujarat, it`s the story of a rising to power gangster who thrives on petty business initially to become the powerhouse of the dark side. A typical bootlegger Raees Aslam rises meteorically to make a stand, all his business are bad they don`t set any morality in the eyes of the viewer but he is also the Robin Hood kind who leaves no hair when it comes to harming goodness. Starting from his mentor to all the politicians they want Raees out of their way, he proves to be a thorn in their handsome evergreen garden, but he defies the challenge to grow even bigger. So when power meets brain, its SRK vs the Police i.e Nawazuddin,

As simple as such, Rahul has kept various checks to the script`s pace by witty one liners and comic elements that ease the heated tension. There is Sunny Leone`s item song, Nawazuddin`s brief comic sense, of course SRK`s lazy smirk, the mind games between brain and brawl, the length of the movie though quite lengthy gets going for these details. For an average SRK fan this movie is just a giant sized ice cream cone for fans would get a taste of SRK`s gritty side, his rise in style, power and sarcasm too. The first half is very engaging for it shows SRK`s meteoric style patiently but very effectively with enough justification too. He thrives on his rag picker mother`s advice “ No occupation is small and no religion is bigger than work” and sets his foot forward by hitting the bulls eye one by one. The film is a tweaked biography of a famed liquor baron in Gujarat, but somehow the makers have denied this all along.

The film mixes research, realism, and more than a whole lot of 'Bollywood' to look exclusively into the politics and the inevitable underworld around the liquor trade which was prohibited in Gujarat of the '80s. Without looking at the star value we can easily asses that Mahira Khan`s character has been wasted to a great deal, as in any Indian commercial film her character is confined for romantic angles without much screen space. Ayub too as a good reliable friend did his part with ease and grabbed a meaty role indeed. As much as the meteoric rise, cat and mouse game, macho-ism works in the flick the screenplay suffers in the predictability zone, a protagonist with a lot of negative shade only to become a Robin hood like character and one could only predict what would happen in the climax so very easily. The action sequences, dance, cinematography are very well structured and shows that Raees did have a sound technical crew at its helm.

In all apart from the predictability factor, some lengthy scenes which had a lot of scope for trimming, it`s an all-around SRK show. The songs especially Laila is already a chart-buster and his age SRK has done enough credible dance movements indeed. By the time you walk out of theatres, you sure are to sing the Thug life song of Raees, oh well SRK.

Verdict : If you are a SRK fan, you definitely will enjoy it. If you are looking for variety from SRK, here is it.

Rating: 3/5