Atlee’s Jawan features Shah Rukh Khan as Vikram Rathore, who is recovering from his injuries and a severe case of memory loss in a remote village. 30 years later, he holds a Mumbai metro train hostage to force an industrialist named Kalee to part ways with his money in order to save his one and only daughter and the hundreds of farmers who are killing themselves due to the debt on their heads. Moments later, it’s revealed that that’s not actually Vikram Rathore, but Azad. He is the jailer of an all-women detention center by day and a vigilante by night (sometimes, he functions during the daytime as well). He is assisted by the girls under his jurisdiction in his crusade against crony capitalists and corrupt politicians. Many such twists and politically charged sermons are delivered in the most mainstream and blunt ways imaginable. And if this had come out at a different time, featuring a different star, maybe nobody would’ve batted an eye. However, since Jawan has been released during one of the most volatile periods in Indian history and it features the one and only Shah Rukh Khan, trust me when I say that the audiences went berserk! Let’s list down those moments so that we can relive the excitement and then rewatch the film.
Spoiler Alert
1. Shah Rukh Khan’s Fiery Entry
There’s something really cool about knowing that your favorite superstar is going to make a big, bombastic entry and yet be surprised when he does exactly that. When Khan showed up in his bandages, I knew that Atlee was going to find a unique way to take them off and do a face reveal. But I didn’t expect it to be burned off with fiery torches. Was it unrealistic? Yes. Did it look cool? Hell yes!
2. Shah Rukh Khan’s Bald Look Reveal
It’s funny that right after doing the fiery face reveal, Jawan does yet another face reveal, this time to show that Vikram Rathore has become a bald vigilante. And the way the bandages come off is interesting. He essentially uses a strap from the bandages, ties it around an officer who is pointing the gun at him, and flips him over. And as the strap gets stuck to the officer’s hand or waist, Khan spins around until all the bandages come off. The icing on the proverbial cake is the hand movement to shake off the dust on his hands. I think it’s a reference to the gesture that was popularized by Thalapathy Vijay and Atlee.
3. Shah Rukh Khan literally asks everyone to clap
After delivering some sweet, sweet justice, Khan asks everyone in the metro train, as well as the audience, to clap. But nobody, not even the audience, is up for it because there’s an innocent person’s body lying right there that Azad has killed to make a point. Turns out, the “dead body” is actually alive, and she is a part of Azad’s girl gang. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief and starts applauding. It’s a really good fourth-wall-breaking moment.
4. Shah Rukh Khan as Azad
The hallmark of a good masala film is that the hero gets to “make an entrance” multiple times. In the first 40 minutes of Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan walks into the frame in slow motion, the air beneath his feet running away from him, and the camera capturing every detail of his body three times! But even though the slow-motion, the change in atmosphere, and the crazy cinematography are similar, they aren’t the same. It’s just a tad bit different every time to make it seem fresh and energetic.
5. Shah Rukh Khan and Atlee Dance To ‘Zinda Banda’
By the time the song ‘Zinda Banda’ played on the big screen, I had listened to it in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu at least 50–60 times and even watched the behind-the-scenes video. So, I knew that they were playing a different version of the song in the film. And even though I had seen Atlee directing Shah Rukh during the shooting of the song while wearing the kind of red and black ensemble that Khan wore in the video, I didn’t expect him to shake a leg with Khan. It was a good cameo, and since almost everyone knows Atlee, they went crazy!
6. Shah Rukh Khan fights Nayanthara
If you have seen the trailers, you know that Shah Rukh Khan is not only going to romance Nayanthara but fight with her as well because they are on opposite ends of the legal spectrum. Still, when the moment arrives, and Khan’s character sets off multiple explosions, says “ready” for the umpteenth time, and walks into the battlefield through columns of fire while Anirudh Ravichander plays a rock ballad, you can’t help but applaud. Atlee and his team just know how to milk the hell out of the briefest of moments.
7. Daddy Shah Rukh Khan Is In The House
I have a feeling that a lot of people don’t actually know that Shah Rukh Khan plays a dual role in Jawan. Or maybe they did, and they were thrown off by the reveal that the younger Shah Rukh Khan wasn’t actually Vikram Rathore. I guess they thought he was a copycat who was merely using Vikram Rathore’s name or something like that. But as soon as they realized that Daddy Shah Rukh Khan had entered the film, the folks lost their entire minds. And I don’t blame them. It’s one thing to watch Shah Rukh Khan in action sequences, and it’s nothing short of a religious experience to see him do all that with a cigar in his mouth, graying hair and beard, and in an all-denim ensemble.
8. Shah Rukh Khan Romances Deepika Padukone
The trailer for Jawan teased a dance number between Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone. But Red Chillies Entertainment didn’t release it on the internet so that audiences could experience it for the first time on the big screen. The song is called Faratta,” and yes, it’s worth a few hoots!
9. Two Shah Rukh Khans, two different beatdowns
As soon as Nayanthara’s Narmada and Narmada’s daughter Suji were separated from each other, I just knew that the two Shah Rukh Khans were going to execute two rescue missions, and I knew both of them would be awesome. Daddy Shah Rukh entered the scene with “Ramaiya Vastavaiya” playing on the radio while the younger Shah Rukh announced his presence through flickering lights (which reminded me a little about Main Hoon Na), making the crowd go mad. When Daddy Shah Rukh realized that he was actually Granddaddy Shah Rukh after rescuing Suji, the whole theater laughed a lot.
10. Old Man Shah Rukh Khan Tears Down the Highway
It’s difficult to say where Jawan peaks because the movie is made of moments of peak excitement. But, gun to my head, I’ll say it’s the highway sequence. The last highway sequence that impressed me was the one from Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation and the knee-jerk reaction of any self-proclaimed cinephile will be to say that the one from Jawan wasn’t as good as that. But did Tom Cruise slide his bike in a circular motion while dragging the metallic heel of his shoe on the asphalt so that the fiery sparks from that lit his cigar, which he then used to explode the bike, thereby obliterating a bunch of goons? No, he didn’t. Shah Rukh Khan did. Hence, it automatically gets top marks.
11. Simba and Mufasa
When Kalee discovered that he had Vikram Rathore in his custody while another guy who looked like Vikram Rathore and claimed to be Vikram Rathore was talking on live TV, he got a little confused. So, one of Rathore’s men clarified that the one on the TV was Simba and the one in front of him was Mufasa, and that moment, as the kids like to say, slapped! If you think about it, after Azad was born, he was presented to the imprisoned women just like Simba was presented in front of Mufasa’s kingdom. Also, fun fact: Shah Rukh Khan voiced Mufasa for the Hindi-dubbed version of 2019’s The Lion King, while his real-life son, Aryan Khan, voiced Simba.
12. Shah Rukh Khan Speaks To The Masses
Can I call the scene where Shah Rukh Khan broke the fourth wall (for the third or fourth time in the movie) to talk about holding politicians and “government servants” accountable, one of the most important moments in Bollywood history? Yes, yes, I’ve heard all the “this is common in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam films” comments. But Bollywood hasn’t addressed anything about the current state of the country for the past decade as directly as Jawan. And who better to do it than the one and only Shah Rukh Khan? People clapped. They clapped hard!
13. Old Man Shah Rukh Khan Remembers
The dialogue (which I have roughly translated to “Talk to daddy before messing with my son) was a hit as soon as people heard it in the trailer. Just like me, I guess everyone assumed that Daddy Shah Rukh Khan was going to utter the words during his first on-screen appearance. But no, he reserved that for the third act. When Kalee was beating Azad to a pulp with a massive lock attached to a chain, Daddy SRK seized it, pulled Kalee close to him, and said the line. The cheering, clapping, and whistling were deafening. By the way, the fight scene that ensued after that had the crowd on their feet, too.
14. The ‘Jawan 2’ Tease
Earlier this year, Shah Rukh already promised us that he’d be showing up alongside Salman Khan in one of his Tiger movies, and I guess everyone expected that because YRF had announced it was an interconnected franchise. But no one expected a tease for Jawan 2, where the two Shah Rukh Khans will potentially attack everything going on around Swiss banks. And, yes, people were pumped to hear that. I know Bollywood is notorious for taking way too much time to make sequels. So, I hope that Jawan 2 isn’t too far away.
15. Shah Rukh and Shah Rukh Dance To ‘Not Ramaiya Vastavaiya’
Shah Rukh Khan has acted opposite himself in Duplicate, Don, Paheli, and Fan. But for one reason or another, he hadn’t danced opposite himself. There’s a moment in “Yeh Dil” from Pardes where multiple versions of him appear. But it’s a brief bit from a long song. For “Not Ramaiya Vastavaiya,” Shah Rukh Khan showed up as two different characters and danced beside himself. The VFX is truly astonishing, especially when the camera starts whipping around all over the place while SRK performs along with the rest of the theater. If it isn’t clear already, let me explicitly state that Jawan is a movie that you should watch in a theater that is absolutely packed. The quality of the picture and the sound, the state of the seats, and the poor air conditioning—none of that matters. Because Shah Rukh Khan cuts through all of that and makes it a festive affair.
