'Raees' review: Shah Rukh Khan stuns audience but Nawazuddin Siddiqui steals the show

This Wednesday Indian box office witnessed a major showdown as superstar Shah Rukh Khan's 'Raees' clashed with Hrithik Roshan's 'Kaabil'.

Interestingly, 'Raees' which is said to be based on criminal Abdul Latif life, had enjoyed much more attention that the Hrithik starrer.

In fact, King Khan was seen adopting unique promotional strategy for 'Raees' wherein he travelled to the national capital from Mumbai via train.

Besides, the movie also stars Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sunny Leone, which added on to the publicity of this SRK starrer.

But looks like, 'Raees' turned out of be a Nawazuddin Siddiqui fim.

Yes! While people are lauding King Khan for shedding off his romantic hero image, Siddiqui has completely stolen the show:

Here's are the reviews of 'Raees':

Mumbai Mirror: "In one of the lesser melodramatic scenes from this film, we see SRK as the eponymous Raees, breaking down. His cheeks swell up like a puri and his head shakes like he's having a seizure and even though not a single tear rolls out of his eyes, from the odd groan, we're assured that he's crying. His performance in the scene seems like a reaction to being forced to watch this film twice. 'Gritty' and 'edgy'— how some have described this film — are the most loosely tossed around words in the film industry. The man who stalks Raees and hopes to trounce his booming business is super cop Jaideep Majmudar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who is close on his heels through the film. But his earnest efforts are nullified by Raees, who manages to get him transferred each time he's about to close in on him. The film takes a turn for the worse in the second half and when things go south for Raees, the story nosedives into hell."

NDTV: "Harking back to the days of the anti-hero of the pre-Shah Rukh Khan era, Raees is a gangster saga with a contemporary spin. It takes recourse to subtle sleights of new-age style to compensate for what it lacks in terms of thematic essence and narrative pace. It makes a fair fist of the palpably onerous task. Shah Rukh shrugs off his defining starry mannerisms, embraces physical attributes and accessories designed to convey an air of to-hell-with-the-world insouciance, and becomes an effective anchor for a film that hinges overly on his box office clout to carry it across the finishing line. Raees has passages that might feel a touch ponderous to those seeking tauter twists and turns, but overall the plot rings true all the way through. Add to that the fascinating duet struck up by Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, both tempering their individual acting styles to seek a meeting ground, Raees becomes a treat to watch even when the film isn't exactly throbbing with energy. SRK is on top of his game here, recalling his Chak De India! performance in the process. With an effortless actor like Nawazuddin Siddiqui snapping at his heels, the lead actor is always on his toes. Nawazuddin, in the middle of a red-hot streak, operates in a totally different zone. He digs his teeth deep into his meaty role with customary elan and delivering a dazzling performance." 

Firstpost: "Raees is the quintessential commercial entertainer. It is to the credit of its director Rahul Dholakia (Parzania, Lamhaa) and its leading men Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui that Raees is also so much more. Raees is set in the Gujarat of the 1970s and ‘80s, when Prohibition has been in effect for well over two decades. It narrates the story of Raees Alam (Shah Rukh Khan), in whom the famed entrepreneurial spirit of the Gujaratis takes a turn that runs contrary to the letter of the law. The law in the movie shows up in a particularly challenging way in the person of Inspector Jaideep Majumdar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), an honest, upright, unflappable (if eccentric) officer. It is perhaps a sign of how vital this antagonistic but oddly respectful relationship between Raees and Majumdar is to the plot that Nawazuddin’s ‘entry scene’ is filmed with as much style as Shah Rukh’s himself. (He appears — to great effect — as a Michael Jackson impersonator!) Not even Mahira Khan, who plays Raees’ love interest and later, wife, is given the same kind of entrance.

Hindustan Times: "Raees is a typical ’80s potboiler. Disturbingly, like commercial cinema from that period, the moral compass is a bit off. As Raees breaks up a political rally with flaming bottles of spirit, it sanctions violence. And it is borderline misogynistic, with the female lead (Mahira Khan) little more than a prop: a love interest he marries, keeps at home to bring up his child, and either yells at or romances.As an actor, SRK brings to Raees his usual screen presence. But also something that has shades of his early career: the ability to play the menacing anti-hero, with a simmering, all-consuming anger. You must also give the man credit for powering through the dance and action routines at 51. Dholakia couldn’t have found a stronger support cast. The cop, Majmudar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), has the best lines, and is a worthy screen rival. As he meets Raees for the first time, he sits filling a fountain pen, and offers tea: the tension palpable, but each trying to show no signs of it."

Indian Express: "Shah Rukh Khan returns in and as Raees, a golden hearted mobster who does bad things for a good cause. It is a role constructed to grab back his pole position, and to that end Shah Rukh Khan strains at fulfilling every single point of the In and As trope. He sings and dances, he fights and romances: he also tries to fulfill the outlines of a character. Then we have Nawaz who is having the time of his life, and making us crack multiple grins, up against an SRK who breaks through in some moments (especially one in which he shares with his bete noire, when the film shuts everything else down so that we can focus on the duo ) but gets bogged down in florid, seen-too-many-times flourishes in the rest. That brief exchange makes us sigh for what might have been, and I will take it away. There’s some zest in the beginning when we see a winning bunch of boys — the young Raees and his bestie, played by Zeeshan Ayyub — learn the ropes of their ‘ganda dhanda’, but soon enough adulthood is upon them, and so is the slide."