The hopes were high for this one. The Jab Tak Hai Jaan trio of actors needed a win after the disappointments that were Jab Harry Met Sejal and Thugs of Hindostan, and in Zero, while their performances hold up for the most part, there is little doubt that the movie does much in lifting itself out of the rut of Bollywood stereotypes.
The story follows a 39-year-old Bauua Singh (Shah Rukh Khan), a vertically challenged, rough-around-the-edges ‘middle class Indian’ from Meerut. He has nursed his celebrity crush on troubled actress Babita Kumari (Katrina Kaif) with intensity for a number of years, but then NSAR scientist Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder (Anushka Sharma) comes into his life. And so, the typical Bollywood stage is set, with a love triangle and a hilarious sidekick (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) who worships the ground that Bauua treads.
If the audience is okay with leaving their logic in a drawer by their bedside before watching the movie, Zero is not that bad, especially the first half. Shah Rukh Khan pulls off the role of the Bauua Singh with swashbuckling aplomb, and gives the audience all the trademark Khan-isms that they know and love. To their credit, the filmmakers chose not to focus on the fact that Bauua Singh is vertically challenged, treating the character for the most part like any other. The few moments where a situation is actually affected by his height is tactfully incorporated, usually eliciting a few laughs as well. Clearly Bauua Singh has embraced that quality, and that only serves to add to how endearing Khan’s portrayal is.
While Anushka Sharma’s portrayal of a scientist affected by cerebral palsy is uneven at best, Katrina Kaif deserves special mention for her performance in this film. Not that she was extraordinary or exceptional (above average would be a better description) but her work in this case was so far removed from her usual stilted offerings that one realises there may yet be hope for her. More than providing the mandatory eye candy, she has clearly tried her best to get under the skin of the heartbroken, angry, and conflicted Babita Kumari—her vulnerabilities subtly peeking out from under her perennially intoxicated exterior. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Guddu is always welcome, trading witty barbs and an adorable bromance with Khan’s character. Similarly lovable are Tigmanshu Dhulia and Sheeba Chaddha (of FilterCopy fame) as Ashok and Beena Singh, Bauua’s longsuffering, no-nonsense parents.
That being said, after the rather entertaining first half, it felt as if the plot wandered away so far from the point that it took some (inter)stellar jumps of logic as it crawled towards the 160-minute mark. Zero ticks most of the items on the Bollywood cliché list—from hasty mohabbats, to invasion of personal space, impromptu danceoffs, cringey monologues in voiceover, a Holi celebration in a hotel corridor where none of the dancers except Bauua gets stained with colour, and a sequence where Sharma and Khan are protected by an invisible barrier of reality while it rains inside the corridor. In slow motion.
Oh, and enough celebrity cameos to make Om Shanti Om quake in its boots.
In a manner reminiscent of Anurag Kashyap with Bombay Velvet, Aanand L. Rai would have done better to focus on low budget, small town stories. The first half of the movie follows this formula, which is probably why it worked so well before it all went downhill. All in all, other than for the performances, it is probably better to give Zero a miss.
Movie: Zero
Director: Aanand L. Rai
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Sheeba Chaddha
Rating: 2/5
