'Zero' review: Along with Shah Rukh Khan, the logic gets dwarfed

Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Zero, one of the most-anticipated movies of the year 2018, had given us sky-high hopes. With a completely different story-line, a four-feet-six-inches vertically challenged, a girl bound to her wheelchair, a damsel in distress, we had hoped that the superhit glorious starcast - Shah Rukh, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif - would make its way straight to the audiences’ heart. Alas! Despite such immaculate acting by all the actors, the story falls flat on logic.

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Bauua Singh is just another quintessential guy from Meerut, with over-the-line confidence. Be it his animosity with his father (Tigmanshu Dhulia), emotional connect with his mother (Sheeba Chadda) or friendship with Guddu (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), Bauua is impulsive and self-absorbed. The ‘bauna’ does not let his inabilities come in the way of his confidence. Things took a different turn for this shorter version of SRK, when Afiya (Anushka) comes into the scene. The highly qualified scientist who works with NSAR stumbles in love with Bauua Singh. While Bauua is vertically challenged, she suffers from cerebral palsy. Then there is Shah Rukh style romance, colours of happiness flourish and both are soaked under the water of love. 

Enter Babita Kumari (Katrina Kaif) and things go south. Well, there is nothing new to add to the role of a star-struck glamour queen who falls into the darkness of the shimmering show-biz world. We have seen it before. However, when a drunk, heart-broken celebrity kisses you, the stars fall to your side! The first half of the film starts on an interesting note, with Bauua, constantly juggling with the realities of life, but soon enough the film loses its sense of rootedness and leaves the audiences in complete dismay. 

We expected the plot to be extraordinary, given the difficulties of a vertically challenged, but it is no different than a regular SRK, just a few inches shorter. It is nothing but a facade, with no ulterior motive. What strikes even more distant is the writing being all over the place. With characters going left and right, the plot seems to be decorated with loose ends. While Bauua can literally strike down a star with his mere finger, the logic falls flat in its own bubble of imaginations.  The dots in the film do not connect and the same goes with the characters. 

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The Meerut boy is in Mumbai in the second half, working with the popular actress Babita Kumari. The story takes forever to have a hard hit, for something substantial to occur. The logic continues to diminish with each passing instance and next thing we know, Bauua Singh is in the US. Well, it does not really end here. The writing is literally out of this SPACE but fails to register the larger-than-life love story among the masses, owing to the absence of logic. 

However, the good part of the Aanand L Rai movie is its characters. Shah Rukh Khan’s charm never fails to impress his audience and his impeccable acting as a physically challenged man wins hearts. Katrina’s role is small but definitely impressive. With black smokey teary eyes, the actor has a conventional power that most of the story lacks. Anushka Sharma’s character gave her the chance to prove her magnificent acting prowess, but the portray of the handicap doesn’t look very convincing or consistent. 

Written by Himanshu Sharma, the film witnesses some catchy comedy moments between SRK and Zeeshan Ayyub. The song Mere Naam Tu stands out and Shah Rukh romancing on the big screen is a sight to sore eyes. 

The plot had provided a very conventional and unique storyboard which could have been used to deliver a big blockbuster, however what it lacks is the connection and the flight of entertainment. Shah Rukh could have used this out-of-comfort-zone acting to take the movie on another level, but ends up spectacularly abandoning every bit of logic. 

The Aanand L Rai directorial is jointly produced by Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment and Colour Yellow Productions.