Debatably the biggest star in Bollywood and undoubtedly one of the best paid actors, Shah Rukh Khan is clearly struggling. The struggle, here, seems to be internal. Allure, charisma, romance, commercial success – the Badshaah of Bollywood had it all. But the 51-year-old star’s homecoming to conventional lover boy topography in Imtiaz Ali’s “Jab Harry Met Sejal” puts open question marks over his period of influence as the king of box office, and more decisively, the choice of films.
Exploring the extraordinary filmography of the actor – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil Toh Pagal Hai – it remains open to discussion and impossible to figure out why the actor agreed to take on (JHMS), released in the cinema halls on 4th August. Interestingly, the film is produced under the banner of his own company, Red Chillies Entertainment.
Opened at 3,200 locations nationwide and internationally, the film made at a budget of Rs. 85 crore, hauled approximately Rs. 45 crore at the domestic box office by the end of its first weekend. The film has emerged as Shah Rukh Khan’s lowest opening in the last five years. The actor’s previous film, Raees, released on 25th January along with Hrithik Roshan starrer Kaabil, earned around Rs. 21 crore on its first day and ended up with a box office collection of around Rs. 128 crore. It’s a given that Jab harry Met Sejal might not end up anywhere close to the Raees number, or even touch the 100 crore mark, given the trend and negative word of mouth reviews. Clearly, King Khan is losing his edge to deliver money-spinning projects, and his acts are getting repetitive, despite the fact that all his last four films were very different in terms of their subjects.
Directed by Imtiaz Ali, Jab Harry Met Sejal, is a saga about Sejal (played by Anushka Sharma) who, in quest of her engagement ring, whilst passing through Europe finds love with a tour guide, Harry, a womaniser (played by Shah Rukh Khan).
Ostensibly, Imtiaz Ali’s design of people travelling to explore their love, an idea successfully weaved to altering degrees in Jab We Met, Rockstar, Tamasha and Highway, failed to make an impression with JHMS. Khan’s latest offering is a creative ignominy, for which everyone involved in the endeavour, must be sent back to their schools for re-education.
Khan has starred in plentiful blockbusters in his career spanning over 25 years and roughly 80 films. Of course, there have been debacles like Ra. One, Dilwale and Fan, but somehow, the actor had the ability to escape the wreckage without inflicting much damage to his star power and box office appeal – a hallmark of a true star. But unquestionably the current phase has been his absolute worst in comparison to anything he has done previously.
Rohit Vats in the Hindustan Times wrote: “It’s a big disappointment to see Shah Rukh Khan returning to his comfort zone and yet not performing on top of his powers. Here’s our movie review of Jab Harry Met Sejal. Rating: 2/5.
Shubhra Gupta in the Indian Express: Jab Harry Met Sejal movie review: ‘Sweet si, ‘sister-type’ Sejal aka Anushka Sharma and the ‘chalu, chalta-hua, cheap’ Harry aka Shah Rukh Khan are much too fraternal with each other. We do see that fire, but much too briefly.
Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Reuters: This is a film that feels like it was directed on auto-pilot and then left to its own devices.
The Wire had a scathing take down: ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ is a soulless, 144-minute tribute to Shah Rukh Khan’s ego. In the Hindu, film critic Namrata Joshi wrote: “JHMS marks a thumping return to love at its most banal, hackneyed and exasperating. There is not much in the silly situations and trite conversations to get you invested or interested in the lovers.”
Despite failing to meet its bulky expectations, there’s a good chance JHMS will end at a respectable total by the end of its run. But does King Khan, one of the world’s highest-earning entertainers listed on Forbes, deserves it? Not really. It is utterly conceivable that as a leading actor, Khan can have the widest range of characters to play, can craftily choose his projects that offer demanding roles, work with tough directors, and still make money. Aamir Khan does it effectively every year. Just a decade ago, Khan steered clear of his comfort zone, and delivered an impeccable performance in Ashutosh Gowariker’s “Swades” as a NASA scientist. Three years later in “Chak De India”, Khan reinvented himself as a hockey coach, and just recently in “Dear Zindagi”; the superstar allowed Alia Bhatt to lead the project and played the character of a psychiatrist. But lately the actor has been pushing himself physically than dramatically – it all started by doing kissing scenes with Katrina Kaif in “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” and even in JHMS by displaying ripped physique with a tattoo in scenes which exist irrelevant to the story.
Jab Harry Met Sejal is a conventional romantic drama, which should have been home turf for Khan, but he looks so out of depth and touch that one starts wondering what has been going through his mind lately. Back in the 1990s, Khan rise to stardom was stupendous and momentous, because he turned out to be an alternative to the existing stars. Here was an actor who was ready to take on challenging roles without hesitating to emphasize his masculinity. But 2017 is far different from 1990s, and there’s been a discrete shift in his personality. Right from “Jab Tak Hai Jaan”, he has been determined to rematerialize as a masculine figure. These strains are visible in the character of Harry, too.May be Khan is trying to pack as much efforts as possible before his body takes toll. May be the superstar knows that his days to play a lover boy are numbered. But surely, like his counterparts have shown that it is possible to transition by alternating romantic flicks with concept based projects helmed by top writers and directors. The superstar has had another lapse in the form of JHMS, but the hope remains to see the star making a comeback, given the experience he had with his failures, it would be expected of Khan to learn from them, for that is exactly the reason why he is still the “Badshaah of Bollywood”.
