Shah Rukh Khan returns in and as Raees, a golden hearted mobster who does bad things for a good cause. It is a role constructed to grab back his pole position, and to that end Shah Rukh Khan strains at fulfilling every single point of the In and As trope. He sings and dances, he fights and romances: he also tries to fulfill the outlines of a character.
                                                                                                                                                                     And that’s where the film gets stuck, between the two stools of restraint and full blown tamasha: the In and As SRK is as familiar as he has ever been, despite the trimmings added on to induce freshness — the gold rimmed glasses, the kohled eyes, the deliberate delivery, and that ‘Scarface’ moment full of guns, arcing bullets and spraying blood– which all actors dream of.
                                                                                                                                                                       Which makes Raees a mish-mash of things we’ve seen before in a plot which owes allegiance to the real life story of a liquor baron who made his pile and his name in dry Gujarat. The filmmakers have denied any similarity but anyone with half an eye can see the overlaps – the ingenuity of a man who could think on his feet (hooch-filled tomatoes!) and cart his maal under the eye of the cop (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who swears to catch him.
                                                                                                                                                                    In fact, amongst all the effective supporting parts which bouy SRK, it is Nawaz who shines most. His dry, wry one liners, and he has several, have a zing which SRK’s don’t. And in a film where the leading man’s dialogue baazi is meant to wow the crowd, that is telling.
                                                                                                                                                                      When he grows up, in one broad stroke, he’s out to conquer the world with two basic lessons: mommy said “No business is small”. And smuggling mentor Jayraj Seth (Atul Kulkarni) said he has “baniye ki dimag, aur Miyabhai ki daring”. The first lesson he interprets as a license to break the law. The latter, if you think about it, comes from a person who’s hardly a role model.
                                                                                                                                     The film opens with a brief childhood sequence, a ’70s set piece. The young Raees is street-smart, and with a head-start into criminal activity. Yes, he’s poor. And overtly touchy about being called “Battery”, slang for someone who wears spectacles. But there’s no scarring humiliation or tragedy, or “Mera baap chor hai” tattoo.

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