An Jo on Zero

Spoiler Alert

In the pre-climactic scene of Zero, Anushka’s Aafiya talks about the compounding nature of love; at once the fragility and strength; at once the frailty and honesty of human beings. the emotion of love. She talks of facts in her life being stranger than fiction; of the actions one resorts to for love. Love, or the search for it, yields two types of reactions: one that the self feels; and one the other, i.e. the world feels. It makes sense then, that only three individuals [Katrina’s Babita Kumari, the hurt-in-love actress, smiles and says proudly that she kissed him when Shah’s Bauua Singh comes onto the digital bill-board in a foreign country] that consider themselves – and are made to feel – incomplete by the world at large go through what might be called a different trajectory of emotions when in love or when lost. And if one, as an audience, buys this logic, much, and much more of the scenes, and story-line makes sense – at least to the heart – and one’s willing to forgive the excesses that the writer and director resort to under the unbearable burden of making Shah Rukh Khan, the ‘superstar’ act as well as retain his star wattage. This is a double-edged sword that sometimes works and shines – but also bleeds both ways, and it shows.

And so, the story is that of three individuals, two of them subject to the karmic nature of life, and one subject to destiny’s materialistic and genetic showers, while also rotting along searching for love; correction, ‘true’ love. On the front, it is a story of three people whose paths cross and who are incomplete, but at its heart, the entire weight of ‘incompleteness’ is borne by the main character of Shah’s Bauuva Singh, a dwarf [for the politically correct, a person vertically-challenged – one always puts the person before his or her supposed imperfections]. The film begins in Meerut, traverses to Delhi, to Bombay, and to the United States; albeit totally confused about the locations in the United States. It shows NYC since the makers want you to see NYC, not because the film needs it! It shows Orlando, utilizes the University of Central Florida campus, travels to Huntsville, Alabama— [Was that pure logistics or Khan’s love for Alabama, vis-à-vis ‘My Name is Khan?’]: Only two of the afore-mentioned locations make sense in the placing of this movie’s situations. Bauvva Singh, though physically short-changed, wants to, tries to, and does, live life larger-than-destined-life. He dreams big, though the world makes fun of him as a small man having big dreams and a man not living within his ‘औकात’. He dreams of marrying a film-star, and runs away from marriage with Aaafia, a brilliant scientist who has a mission to Mars and is afflicted with cerebral palsy. Through a matrimonial service, they meet, enjoy each other’s company, acknowledge their imperfections, and fall in love, Bauua reluctantly, and Aafia, hopelessly. Thanks to Bauua’s dreaming big, he rejects his happening marriage to Aafia and runs away to Bombay to meet a physically gifted actress, whom he has always dreamt of marrying. In the course of their time spent together, he realizes, and Babita acknowledges and makes him realize, that his true love, and his heart, only belongs to Aafia. Bauua tries to mend her heart in recovering from heart-breaks with an actor, with him being an unofficial employee-cum-advisor on people – note, because, he feels, she understands the world, but not it’s people. It’s an unintended give and take for both. The rest of the film then deals with the extent – from Bombay to NASA in Florida— to which Bauua realizes his one and only love, repents, and the tasks he undertakes to win back Aafia.

The first half of the film is brilliant and tonally consistent with the Meerutiya atmosphere; it’s a known-fact that Aanand and Himanshu know the heart-land’s lingo and cultural-specificity like the back of their hands, and it shows, oh how it shows! From a fantastic Tigmanshu Dhulia playing his father to the cycle rickshaw-wallah’s character to Brijendra Kala’s matrimonial-service agent, the film ‘marinates’ in its North-Indian small-town milieu. The writing is sharp, the dialogues extremely witty, and the ‘लहज़ा’ seeps through in daily conversations and exchanges. Bauua’s exchanges with his father, his mother, and his friend Aayub. The marriage scenes and the pre-cursors to those scene are brilliantly shot, with minute references to the milieu and culture, be it the ‘mandatory’ showering of money during the ‘बारात’, or the ritual of shooting bullets – in a fine nod, Bauua’s mother, Sheeba Chadda’s Beena, snatches the revolver from her husband, adjusts it, and shoots in the air; so as to indicate, what if it’s traditionally the man’s calling to ‘shoot’, I will shoot it anyway!. The song ‘JAB TAK TERE NAAM’ is superbly picturized and is brilliant, to say the least, visually and aurally: Absolutely mesmeric and SRK is in his elements here; especially when he dances with the girl-kid: Superb channelization of his strengths as a star. Sample some terrific lines: a) ना जी ना, अगर अकेली हे पीनी होती तो फिर मीरूत के ठेके बुरे थे क्या? b) ओजी इतने दूर आए हैं आपकी महफ़िल में.. छाई, लस्सी, बनता, रास्ना, शराब कुछ तो पुच्छ लो.. कुछ तो पुच्छ लो c) शादी किससे करनी थी हुमारे यहाँ प्लॉट देखने के पैसे थोड़े लगते हैं|

Come the second-half, and it is here that what-ever was on paper thematically, just goes hay-wire and elongated like a gum cinematically. There are some terrific moments ‘inserted’ that embody the Babita-Bauua relationship, but once the ‘itch’ for Bauua to return to his true love is initiated in the course of this relationship, it’s a giant stretch; absolutely honest in its expectation, but gone wrong in its execution. This is again in Anand’s home-territory of Jimmy Sherill’s character trying to get back Kangana in ‘Tanu Weds Manu’, but the problem is, here, it tries to reach the ‘skies’ instead of staying down-to-earth; and Aanand, to say the least, falters here. It’s a mis-step due to multiple factors: a) wedding the Aanand Rai template of North-India based love-stories onto the Shah Rukh romance template b) trying to extend the boundaries of the afore-mentioned Aanand Rai template, and c) the biggest culprit of all: Trying to ‘merge’ Shah Rukh Khan’s iconicity and romance-ridden signature onto something more ambitious, such as, subverting the super-hero genre as accustomed to the Marvel/DC comics via a vertically challenged person! Very ambitious to say the least; but lost in translation, and of course, execution.

As I said before, the biggest wealth, and ill-health, of ZERO is Shah Rukh Khan, the super-star, and Shah Rukh Khan, the actor. The latter falls prey to the former. It’s happened before, and it’s again happened now. It’s a weird reasoning, but somewhat true, that both parties, one that feels dwarfism is used as a gimmick, and one that feels that it’s used as a plot-device metaphorically, are right in their own way! The very first scene of the movie, a ‘dream’ sequence, symbolizes SRK, the super-star’s dreams and achievements per se! From then on, there are meta-references to his super-stardom in bits and pieces, in scene after scene. After he wakes up from his dream, in which he protects a house-maid from a mob headed by his, well, his ‘father’, the villain, who he thinks is responsible for his short height, thanks to his gutkha-eating habit, he asks her to get him tea while his cronies land up on the road reading him the daily news! A symbolism to the real Shah’s weakness of being surrounded by ‘yes-men’? Who knows? And then, contradicting this, is his saying that being from a small-town like Meerut, how can he expect a kiss from a woman as famous as Babita Kumari, the actress? Isn’t this a reflection of Shah Rukh’s ‘I am the best’, self-therapy? He always thought of himself as being inadequate as an actor, or so he talked in his older interviews, but convincing himself first, and then the world, that he is indeed better than the best, was him talking to himself to get going in the morning. In reality, SRK the actor convinces himself, that he is the best, and better than Bachchan – but when faced with reality, as with the character of Bauua here, he admits that Meerutiyas are hardly lucky to get a kiss from a woman, let alone from Babita Kumari! There are meta-contradictions galore, and it’s difficult as an audience to buy them. The ‘character-graph’ and etching of the inadequacies of height are highly contradictory, especially in the way it resonates with the audience. Yes, there are thrown in dialogues, like Bauua asking his friend, and referencing his height, ‘What else has God got to put me down? ‘At a party attended by film-stars, he matter-of-fact states to Babita, ‘People like us are used as baits in circuses. That’s what we are. Why don’t you employ me as your side-kick, as a joker, for quirks and see where it lands?’ All these are good, but his confidence, his over-confidence, and his channeling of romantic stardom and arrogance are so looming in the front, that we—at least—as an audience, lose all empathy to this character. The character and the actor clash, and it’s an inconvenient clash. And again, remember Khan’s narcissism about who the better husband would be to Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Rab Ne Bada Di Jodi’? It is Shah Rukh Khan himself, but without the moustache and glasses, and with gelled-hair! And what better venue than a dance competition to win the heart? And so here it goes, it’s again a dance-competition that is pulled in as a fulcrum! And then there’s the scene – two actually—referencing the poorly directed/aimed film, ‘My Name is Khan’ where Muslims don’t get visas – or are discriminated – to the United States. What was the need? It’s done! You had one whole film devoted to the cause! Let it go! Contrast this with the ‘technical’ homage to the Brahman-clan; Bauua hangs his janaeu over his ear when he’s peeing; hell, even when he is being sanitized, he makes sure, he has it on; or even when he’s stripping! It sprays off a vibe like one’s trying to subvert when one’s actually not truly invested in it..

The party with film-stars is such a poorly executed gimmick, what with Sridevi showing her cleavage, it’s in poor taste, and adds ZERO value to the proceedings. This is not even OSO, where it made sense in the cinematic universe of its setting to bring together all the stars under one roof! Once Bauua runs away from Meerut, there’s not even a single scene that talks of what his extended/joint family might have faced. Didn’t the move start out on the premise? A dis-jointed family, though, is still a joint family? And then they bring in the kid thanks to the one-night-stand with Aafia, the premise of which is left dangling in the air! Just like a zero-gravity experiment! It is so poorly executed that one’s staggered! In a scene, Madhavan reveals that he’s marrying Aafia only for a billion-dollar project, and she responds saying she’s both angry and sad: The next instant, when one’s lead to believe that Aafia might now realize what true love is, she goes on to talk of Bauua running away from being a ‘monkey’ on the shuttle! Again, in a scene invoking 3 Idiots, Aafia keeps ‘driving’ on US inter-state toward the launching pad on her wheel-chair!

The film so rises in the first-half, and the second-half, well, it’s subject to interpretation, and not in a kind way.

SRK is energy-personified, and is brilliant within the stardom-stuffed box. Consider the scene in the car when Babita tries to get out of him his love for Aafia by faking her parents’ love-story; check his reactions: He is fantastic! His eye-balls rise and fall like the crests and troughs of the Arabian Sea! But…, but haven’t we seen it in FAN? This is literally a posturing of SRK the ‘Dillli-ka-launda’ North-Indian arrogant stuff –again, brilliantly channelized by Mani in DIL SE, and nothing super-cedes it as yet—beaten to death, by directors, and the star himself. That’s the huge problem with this film. It attempts/aims to try something different, but beneath the surface, it executes the same.

In conclusion, the problem with this movie is, as an audience, one implicitly understands the emotions underlaying and is warmed up to it, but the unspooling exposes a lot of weak-points.

Want another numbered-meta?

Amitabh in KAALIA
Shah in ZERO

P.S.:

I don’t believe in ratings, but for whatever it’s worth:

3.8/5.0