REVIEW
 
Raees is an action crime thriller film set in Gujarat of early 1980s to 1990s and deals with the fictitious story of a man named Raees. Rahul Dholakia, Harit Mehta, Ashish Vashi and Niraj Shukla have written the story for the movie produced by Gauri Khan, Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar under their banners Red Chillies Entertainment and Excel Entertainment.
 
STORY
 
Raees is an ordinary man, but his relationships and meteoric rise help him build an entire empire. He eliminates every opposition that comes his way. But his downfall will be crossing paths with no-nonsense police officer Majumdar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), whose sole reason for existence is elimination of crime. The battle between the two forms the crux of the story.
 
PERFORMANCE
 
Raees has an interesting story and engaging screenplay. Some dialogues, humour and action scenes keep the film goers entertained in the first half of the film. But the second half is predictable and the narration is slow in parts. The climax is good and it works big time.
 
Shah Rukh Khan has delivered brilliant performance and his action and dialogue diction are the highlights of Raees. Mahira Khan has done justice to her role and her glamour and chemistry with SRK are among the highlights of the film. As stubborn cop, Nawazuddin Siddiqui will impress the film goers and he is big asset of the film. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Atul Kulkarni, Sheeba Chaddha have done good jobs. Sunny Leone wins the heart with her dance in the item song Laila Main Laila, say the audience.
 
Raees has superb production elements. Ram Sampath's soundtracks and background score, KU Mohanan's picturisation, choreography of action scenes and punch dialogues are the attrations on the technical front.
 
Once Upon A Time in Mumbai, with Raees as both have similar plots set in similar period setting. But the former knows its audiences and accepts its masala persona. Raees, meanwhile, is stuck in a limbo of whether to be a realistic drama or a masala entertainer but doesn’t do justice to either.
 
The scenes of Raees’ ascension to power, how he hoodwinks the police and wins an election from jail are written in a very lazy manner. The terrorism angle that should have been the tension-building twist turns out to be another yawn-worthy plot device for the writers who seemed clueless as to how to end this.
 
However the biggest letdown of Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees is the love track between Raees and his wife, that looks like an afterthought than a proper track. There is zero chemistry between SRK and Mahira, even with random insertion of songs here and there. Mahira mostly has the role of a decorative showpiece, while talented actors like Zeeshan Ayyub and Atul Kulkarni are sadly wasted.
 
PLUS
 
Shah Rukh Khan
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
 
MINUS
 
Easily Predictable Story
Slow Screenplay
SRK and Mahira Have No Chemistry At All

Verdict : Can be Seen Once for Shah Rukh!

Stars : 2/5