Raees : The hunt for an emotional core in a gangster movie

Raees - 3.5/5 -Watchable for the genre ( spoilers ahead)

Finally a gangster movie after a long time. And that too played by Shahrukh Khan who started off playing negative roles. Helmed in the time of prohibition in Gujarat. 

Now in gangster movies - you can make the hero unapologetic about why he is a gangster, usually its the environment that leaves one with no choice - like Tony Montana in Scarface as a Cuban immigrant or a hapless Velu Nayagan facing police atrocity in Dharavi. Or it can be a classic turn of events like Satya where one thing leads to another . This is usually an immigrant turns gangster movie in a big bad city. In some cases its even more casual, the guys sees the riches of the trade and does it Ranbir Kapoor talking 'apne ko big shot banne ka' in the disastrous Bombay Velvet.  

Or you can have a larger than life personality creation where Vijay Dinanath Chauhan in Agneepath has a moral wound of his childhood but no explanation is given why he is a gangster.  Agneepath is a rank bad movie only enhanced because of AB's voice and villainy of Kancha Cheena. 

Or you have the 2 perfect gangster movies made in India. Deewar where a Vijay's emotional core is so strong that it is tattooed on his arm as a brute reminder. He works his way up as a gangster disbelieving the system  and then the second half wow - the moral crisis beautifully written as his brother and mother disown him. Crime doesnt pay internally or externally - as Nirupa Roy says 'Tu aaj bhi utna bada nahi hua ki tu apni maa ka khareed sake'. Dialogues that deliver. Then you have the moral question asked in Nayagan by the gangster's grandchild - ' neengal nalavar aa katavar aa ( are you good or bad). '

The gangster movie usually follows a template - establish emotional core , plot the early years well - wounds should be visible/struggle , a kind benefactor or an introduction to the trade,  the grand heist that establishes the gangster in the trade, then his growth from gangster to don, inter don rivalry, his personal life expansion to wife , moral crisis sets in and then climax. 

Sanjay Dholakia the director of Raees knows that he has to get this emotional core right. So he invents his equivalent where Raees's ragpicker mother whom we have to assume is a widow says to her son ' Dhande se bada koi dharam nahi hota, and adds a weak line when asked - so long as it doesnt produce nuksaan to others'.  

Now in traders paradise Gujarat- I have to interpret this as a where you see a bid-ask spread you should get in irrespective of what is being traded. As a rag pickers son - you can see the value chain - empty liqour bottles get you X  , so the full bottle should get you 100X especially in a state that has imposed prohibition. 

However we dont get such business lessons in our movies. So Raees Mirza is SRK. So his character needs to be built - so using his mothers advice and his mischievousness ( which is Nothing but the SRK real life smart alecness) ,  he climbs up the trade. First he tries to steal Mahatma Gandhis spectacles since his mother cant afford one, then he starts smuggling liquour for the local tradesman ( Atul Kulkarni). By doing this he sets up his persona - ' Baniye ka dimag, Mirzabhai ki daring'. We like this personality - and its SRK in pathani suits strutting around in kohl eyes. Since there is no weak spot , a deliberate one is introduced ' he hates being called chashmis' , so you have a bespectacled bootlegger. This is where the movie sucks you in, you like Raees, you like SRK.

The movie starts to falter slowly when we reach the first heist. SRK breaks from Atul to set up his independent business , but to get the collateral , he pledges his scooter for a car, uses that to buy goats and enters Mumbai with them in truck hoping to sell it for Ramzan and make a killing. Here he encounters the other traders, whom he fights as an outsider.  Overall this scene felt weak, its not the same impact as the salt trick that Nayagan does or the audacity in which Vijay hits Peters goons. This is a more refined yet dirty fight in a mutton shop of Mohamaed Ali Road. 

Here is where he strikes a friendship with a Mumbai gangster , and this friendship will prove costly later. He rises to the top of the bootlegging trade outwitting even his former boss Atul Kulkarna with schemes like putting liquor in tomatoes and slowly using his entire village as a supply chain of sorts - sewing bags and becoming their main employer of choice. 

In between he falls in love with a ghostly Mahira Khan. One of the worst Pakistani imports, almost like you wanted to smuggle gold but ended with tin. This angle although it gets better in the second half is a dampener - just because SRK can romance even a scarecrow and look good, doesnt mean we need it. 

The angle that works well is the chase by the earnest policeman. Nawazuddin Siddiqui although makes us realize that Raees is just another criminal wanted by the police even if his connections are strong. Nawaazuddin lights up the screen every time and shows that his star value in a SRK movie is nothing to be trifled with. 

Raees suddenly realizes that he is a do gooder - a local Robinhood and while he has to stand for elections to escape arrest , he starts to taking his local do-gooder act more and more seriously - trying to build a housing colony for the poor ( bastiwalas). 

Here the interplay between politicians, police and crime is caught in a realistic roving lens , and its a refreshing one sans too much drama and dialoguebaazi. There are a few smart moves in how Raees avoids arrest. 

As Raees tries to raise more funds, he faces more resistance and then he commits a blunder for money , accepting a task that smuggles RDX into the country. I thought this angle especially when you play a Muslim don is an interesting one. This is where you start to feel for Raees and the movie reaches a magnitude , a certain gooey moral mass but by this time its 2 hours and 15 mins . Yes the emotional question comes up but too late. What follows is a mere cat and mouse game. 

And thats where you feel the movie could have done more. This could have been SRK's rightful crown as what Agneepath did to AB, .  Unfortunately Dholakia ka Dimag,  SRK ki daring did not have Salim Javed ka dialogue stirring dil.

But I am glad that we could watch a decent gangster movie after a long time. This is the genre that made us go to the movies. It cant die , whether we have the Salim Javed one, Scorcesse ones, or RGV's ones, hence my weakness for the genre makes it a watchable 3.5/5.