Raees

Shah Rukh Khan delivers a surprisingly nuanced performance in this slick crime drama, playing Raees with a disarming charm that makes the character's moral descent feel almost inevitable rather than sudden. Director Rahul Dholakia brings visual polish and narrative momentum to what could have been a standard underworld saga, and the cat-and-mouse dynamic between Khan's Raees and Nawazuddin Siddiqui's principled cop Majmudar crackles with genuine tension. The film's examination of how local smugglers become untouchable through political patronage feels rooted in observable reality, and there are moments—particularly in the second half when Raees's ambitions outpace his wisdom—where the storytelling achieves real dramatic weight.

However, the film stumbles when it tries to juggle too many narrative threads without fully committing to any. The romantic subplot feels perfunctory, the family drama never quite lands emotionally, and the supporting cast of gangsters and politicians blur together rather than create a vivid ecosystem. More problematically, the film's moral universe becomes muddled; Raees is portrayed with such stylistic sympathy that his criminality often feels like a victimless affair, and the ending, while dramatically satisfying, doesn't quite earn its philosophical weight. Siddiqui is excellent as the foil, but his character remains somewhat one-dimensional.

What ultimately works is Khan's willingness to play a protagonist who doesn't inspire heroic identificati