Raees (2017)

Raees is the kind of swaggering, street-level crime saga that feels both larger-than-life and strangely intimate, powered by a Shah Rukh Khan performance that leans into grit without losing his movie-star magnetism. Rahul Dholakia keeps the story moving with a taut, propulsive rhythm—part thriller, part action spectacle—while letting the world of ’80s–’90s Gujarat breathe with texture and tension. The real spark, though, is the cat-and-mouse clash with Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s relentlessly principled cop, a rivalry that crackles with wit, menace, and a mutual sense of inevitability. It’s not a subtle film and it doesn’t shy away from brutality, but if you want a high-energy Bollywood gangster tale with suspenseful momentum and two actors going toe-to-toe, Raees is an easy bet.

Raees is clearly aiming for a big, swaggering rise-and-fall crime saga, with Shah Rukh Khan leaning hard into the charismatic outlaw persona while Nawazuddin Siddiqui brings a welcome edge as the dogged cop. The problem is it wants to be everything at once—massy hero worship, gritty crime drama, political commentary, romance—and the result can feel uneven and overlong, like it keeps restarting instead of tightening the screws. If you’re hoping for a focused, tense thriller with clean pacing and hard realism, this one may test your patience with its excesses and tonal swings. Still, when it narrows to the cat-and-mouse rivalry and lets the leads play off each other, it has flashes of real energy and style that might be enough if you’re here primarily for the star power and spectacle.