Why 'Fan' is a make-or-break film for SRK?

A man from nowhere became the star of Bollywood. 

Call him "Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" or "King Khan", Shah Rukh has charmed the world for more than two decades with his exuberance and charisma but then stardom weighed heavy on him and he became so busy to fight gravity and keep his throne that the actor slowly faded away. He kept giving hits after hits, riding the number game but his role and his portrayals were repetitive and uni-dimensional. 

However, his next two releases Maneesh Sharma's Fan (releasing on April 15) and Rahul Dholakia's Raees seems like a step in the right direction and give a glimmer of hope for a star to find his soul again.

When Shah Rukh was yet to be discovered, Amir and Salman had already arrived. With Qayamat se Qayamat Tak (1988) and  Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), both Amir and Salman had already tasted success, taking Bollywood by storm, stealing the hearts of many a fans with their boyish charm. 

Amir further cemented his place in the industry with Dil (1990), Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), Andaz Apna Apna (1994) and Raja Hindustani (1996), for which he won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor. 

Salman, on the other hand, left many women weak at their knees when he hit Madhuri Dixit with a catapult in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994). It actually had struck the hearts of his female fans and led to huge following, putting him at the top of the most eligible bachelor's list.

Shah Rukh, meanwhile, was trying to chart a new territory for himself with films such as Darr (1993), Baazigar (1993) and Anjaam (1994) after making his debut with Deewana (1992). Such roles earned him appreciation but also criticism for playing violent roles as the society then was not okay with such kind of portrayals.

But then something happened which changed everything. In exactly mid 90s, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) happened to SRK and it opened up a new world of super stardom which only grew bigger with films such as Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001). He had earned the key to success, winning the heart of All and Sundry.

In the new millennium, however, the definition and dynamics of love seemed to have changed. But Shah Rukh still continued to rule the roost with films such as Mohabbatein (2000) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Devdas (2002), Swades (2004), Chak De! India (2007).

Amir, meanwhile, had found his calling in meaningful cinema that spoke about social and youth issues but also entertained. Films such as Lagaan (2001), Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Rang De Basanti (2006) and Taare Zameen Par (2007), were poignant and meaningful and also set the cash register ringing. Shah Rukh too sharpened his acting prowess and played the role of a character with Asperger's syndrome in Karan Johor's My Name Is Khan (2010). 

However, a new benchmark to gauge a film's success had emerged by the late 2000 -- '100 crores'. What followed was a maddening race among filmmakers, producers and actors to get their films into the '100 crore' club.

Interestingly, Salman, who went through a dark phase in the new millennium where he did more than 30 films but none matched his past rewards, emerged as the most consistent member of this club with film such as Wanted (2009), Dabangg (2010), Bodyguard (2011), Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Kick (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) -- earning him unprecedented stardom. Amir also tried to balance it with Ghajini (2008), 3 Idiots (2009), Dhoom 3 (2013) and PK (2014).

However, Shah Rukh found himself sandwiched between two kinds of cinema dished out by the other two Khans. 

After Yash Chopra's last picture, Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012), SRK starred in Rohit Shetty's Chennai Express (2013), Farah Khan's Happy New Year (2014) and Dilwale (2015) alongside Kajol. All the films were profitable but SRK received a lot of brickbats for his uni-dimensional portrayal of characters which seemed hollow and stale.

Shah Rukh is intelligent enough to know that the audience is changing and what he needs to do to woo them back. He can no more just seat back and play to the gallery like Salman or weave it like Amir and neither does he want to leave his fans to move away from him. 

Here lies the importance of Maneesh Sharma's Fan (releasing on April 15), where he is once again challenging himself to play a character which is obsessed and violent, a role which shows glimpses of his past portrayals in films such as Darr and Anjaam. 

From the trailer, the film seems to have been written interestingly, pitching an actor who had dared to tread uncharted territories and had caught the imagination of his fans in his earlier days against an actor that he has become over the years.

His dual roles of a superstar and his fan provides that double dose of SRK which even his critics are waiting to watch and if he can pull off something which Kangana Ranaut did with aplomb in Tanu weds Manu returns, it is surely going to shut the critics and win him many more hearts.

In fact, Rahul Dholakia's Raees (SRK's next release), co-starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui is another film which will decide which way his stardom goes.

Delhi Belly:An edge-of-the-seat comedy

At a time when Dabaang, Ready and Double Dhamal types of movies are trying to make people laugh with their slapstick and double meaning and often offending dialogues, Delhi belly comes has a breath of fresh air. It is a no-nonsense and on-your-face comedy which doesn't try to be a comic but tickles your funny bone by its sheer situation and characters and their predicaments and difficulties and its fast pace of narration.

Delhi Belly falls in the line of movies such as Sanket City, Phas Gaya Obama and love ke liye kuch bhi kharega, which have entertained people with the sheer power of their scripts and performance.

Delhi Belly doesn't have a great story but it's biggest strength is its script, dialogues and screenplay besides the performances. From the first scene to the last frame, the director never leaves the acccelarator even for a moment as the characters and their predicaments unfold in a breath-taking pace which leaves the audience enthralled.

In fact, by the time the credit starts rolling, you actually feel completely satisfied with Aamir Khan's I hate You (Like I love you) item number serving as a perfect dessert for the audience.

But having said that, it is not for the ones who likes to go out on an weekend with their families or for the moral policing couples. It is a perfect outing for a group of friends -- the 20 and early 30 somethings -- or for couples who are more friends than husbands and wives.

Reasons: Its language is crass, full of slangs, perhaps you can make a dictionary of slangs out of this movie. It is the language of the youths especially of Delhi, which almost every commoner hears day in and day out in the capital and though the language is raw still at no point it seems that the director tried to forcibly include those slangs in the movie. Also if toilet humour makes you abominable then stay away from it, because you have plenty of it here.

Also some of its scenes are too raw by Indian standards, because we think twice before including those in Bollywood perhaps fearing the moral police, although, it is a reality of the young and ever-changing India.

In fine, Delhi Belly is a laugh riot, a complete paisa vasool. It is a kind of film which gives a lot of hope to an industry which generally depend on homophobic and racists jokes to entertain people in the name of comedies. It gives a ray of hope to the dying genre of comedy in Bollywood.