Aanand L Rai directorial 'Zero' is purely an entertaining family drama being absolutely cheerful and comical in the first half. The credit goes to the central character of the film Bauua Singh played by Shah Rukh Khan, a four feet six inches tall dwarf; who is dreaming a cowboy Hollywood sequence with his father (Tigmanshu Dhulia) rescuing his maid uttering some french dialogues to suit the vintage background. The dream breaks in and laughs fall off among the audiences as the narrative proceeds. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Guddu Bauua's close friend shouts out joyful news from the newspaper. Fanboy Bauua's favorite celeb Babita Kumari [Katrina Kaif] who he terms it as Bhabhi is about to hit their small city of Meerut. From here the narrative follows Bauua Singh's guilty pleasure which is an affair with a geeky space scientist Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder (Anushka Sharma) a cerebal palsy victim by birth relies on her wheelchair. The flashback follows to Bauua's desperation of marriage walking in the matrimony office and going after Aafia for further interaction. The first half has many hilarious moments crafted to take all your boredom away also catering a momentum of a love triangle in Bauua Singh's life. His dream comes true as he gets a chance to meet Babita Kumari who is in the fued of her own relationship as she chooses to be an absurd alcoholic chick. Katrina was marvellous in this role where she has no fucks to give. Well-characterized celebrity nerd who gets close to Bauua at a certain point of time.
It is the second half that Rai changes the tone on a slightly emotional side where the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville is majorly the backdrop of the film. Aafia aka Anushka's dream to send a Chimpanzee on Mars to prove human survival on Mars is the project she has spend a majority of the time. R. Madhavan as her to be fiance has a cameo to play. While Bauua is back in the US to apologize for his mistake while he ends up enrolling for the man of this mission. The pace of an entertaining film is well maintained and the adjacent narrative of a space station fits in quite well. These emotions are well served to the audiences as they get involved with a gripping conclusion.
The performances are thoroughly the highlight and to admit it as early as we can it is undoubtedly Shah Rukh Khan who shines brightly marking this as his best film in recent years for sure. The forced perspective technology really worked to create an illusion but the character of Bauua Singh stays with us. Katrina Kaif as Babita Kumari played quite raw and we wanted more of her. Anushka Sharma played the paralyzed geeky space nerd with a lot of conviction, taking Stephen Hawking's character reference into consideration. Anushka had a challenging character which she outplayed. Kaif's love interest Abhay Deol had a catchy cameo to play. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub was whimsical uttering those Urdu words calling Bauua 'Jahapanha'. The film is a match winner when it comes to a complete family entertainer.
Songs are refreshing, euphonious and a joy to watch as well. Whether it was sizzling hot Katrina Kaif in 'Husn Parcham' or the Betwitching cute chemistry of Anushka and Shah Rukh in the colourful cinematic song 'Mere Naam Tu', every song catered the audience's interest and we could not blink our eyes when these songs played. The Salman Khan song with Bauua titled 'Issaqbaazi' was energetic and ecstatic. Every song was placed perfectly in the film especially the tune of 'Mere Naam Tu' was repeatedly used in most of the sequences.
The film is garnered with some fresh cinematic scenes as director of photography Manu Anand has captured these redefining sequences flawlessly as whether it was the small town Meerut, Huntsville US or even Mumbai, the places are well captured in the film. The sets of Meerut were absolutely believable. The screenplay lacked a bit in the end but does engage the audience in every frame of it. We wanted more of the dialoguebaazi and barely one or two of them were catchy. Himanshu Sharma's story was simple and conclusive and the treatment to the script by Aanand L. Rai surely deserve this engaging feature film that would surely hold the audiences on their seat. Shah Rukh Khan fans are in for a treat.
Cast :Tigmanshu Dhulia, Katrina Kaif, Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma
Director :Aanand L Rai