After the debacle of Jab Harry Met Sejal, I was really looking forward to Shah Rukh Khan starer Zero. A one-year gap, the visual effects, SRK as a vertically challenged man, Shah Rukh's chemistry with leading ladies Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma, the coming together of Shah Rukh and Aanand L Rai, the cast. There were a number of things to look forward to. Especially for someone who, as a child and admittedly as an adult, had always in some degree fallen prey to SRK's charm. But I was disappointed.
Thankfully, there were other actors with relatively well-developed characters who tried their best to make me sit till the very end of the film. And they did succeed. I speak of Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Katrina Kaif.
Tigmanshu Dhulia plays Bauua Singh's (Shah Rukh Khan) father in Zero. And he is so convincing in his portrayal of the middle-class Indian father who is perpetually dissatisfied with his son that you can't help but sit up and take notice of the man.
Tigmanshu shares incredible chemistry with SRK, and considering that they have never worked together, that is an achievement worth acknowledging. There is something to be said about the opening sequence of the movie, the first two minutes of the movie is pure gold. A throwback to the American western classics and Bollywood wherein Tigmanshu steals the show. Tigmanshu as a disappointed father and as a man concerned about his ill-mannered son, is spot-on.
Another actor who saves the day or at least puts his best foot forward is the talented Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. The actor plays a Muslim called Guddu Singh in the film. Now that we have addressed that, let's move on to the more important point of Zeeshan's skill as an actor. He is so skillful that he makes you forget that his character is a Muslim who is called Guddu Singh. The perfect friend, the comic relief, the best lines; everything belongs to Zeeshan. Shah Rukh's Bauua would have had a hard time attempting to please the audience and the female leads of the film had it not been for Zeeshan's loyal, nonsensical, but endearing Guddu.
Tigmanshu is a talented man, Zeeshan has always given his everything to his characters, these takeaways from the movie are important and should be noted. But they are not surprising, not to me at least. But Katrina Kaif's portrayal of the diva Babita is.
Katrina Kaif acts. She does, and if you don't believe it then compare it with the work of the other two leads, especially post intermission. Of course, Katrina looks the part. She always looks the part, but this time she attempts to deliver her act with an amount of honesty that reached out to me as a viewer, someone who is not a Katrina fan. And that's saying something.
