Zero – Is it Worth the Hype? 
Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma’s Zero released on Friday and as I grabbed my tickets, looking forward to a whirlwind of romance and action, I was surely disappointed!
Read more to find out why.
The story introduces us to 39-year-old eccentric Bauua Singh (Shah Rukh Khan), who wakes up from an action-packed dream where he saves his maid from goons, to the reality of being a dwarf. A single and over-confident man, who is the light of Meerut Town, is in search of love but driven by lust.
For the first half of the film, the screenplay seems to be following a clear direction. While the script is punctuated with witty wordplay and the occasional raunchy humor; the movie satisfies my taste for a comedy fix.
Shah Rukh Khan (Bauua Singh) meets Anushka Sharma (Aafia) who is a physically disabled NASA scientist and they both hit it off in a sweet romance where he woos her with his perpetual sweet talk.
Plot twist? Just as things seem to be going in the right direction, Aafia visits Bauaa’s family who wants to arrange their marriage, although Bauua isn’t ready for the big commitment yet. What follows is a turmoil of plot twists, as events take a turn for the dramatic. (This IS Bollywood after all!). We won’t give away too much, but hint, hint, Runaway Bride comes to mind at a point in the film – with a bit of role reversal though!
Things get messier thereafter, as they have to, in order to work the plot – A word of caution here – It gets worse before it MIGHT get better. The path to true love is after all, strewn with many thorns, except this time, the thorns seem to be laid by our hero himself!
If you’re patient enough you would sit out the last one hour of the film, rolling your eyes just to see what happens next, as Shah Rukh Khan takes a leap from one course of action to another, leaving the viewers a tad confused and distressed. However, the unexpected twists and turns make me wait a while longer, and I hope for better things to come?
Not all was lost though. An interesting add-on to the film, and in typical SRK style, was the special appearance of star actors in A particular scene – it brought back memories of the ever-famous Deewangi Deewangi song from Om Shanti Om – perhaps a moment for us to sit up and exclaim: “Oh, Now that was nice!”
There’s also one special song with Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, where they dance together and their size differentials render this one a special watch. A winning point of the film is the excellent cinematography that flaunts the possibilities and parameters of the latest digital techniques; truly mind-blowing!
The movie drags on and on in all sorts of directions for the second half of its run-time. To say that the screenplay is terribly executed would be a bias as it’s not just the plot that determines the overall success of the movie, so I could be subjective in saying that the film was a misadventure overall.
But let’s take a break at giving Zero a complete battering and focus on aspects other than the plot. Acting and cinematography: two thumbs up for Anushka Sharma’s performance who brilliantly played the role of a scientist stricken with cerebral palsy; it’s definitely a challenging role, yet she delivers an above-par performance. Shahrukh Khan of course, has charmed the audience with his signature acting, whereas Katrina fits her role like a glove – the glamour girl has all the right moves.
The VFX and space animation is superbly done, and halfway through the film, one can mistake the movie for a sci-fiction genre, but of course, with a generic blend of Bollywood romance – that will never be missed.
Overall rating: 3/5 stars. Pretty average. Zero is like every other Bollywood movie that thrives on drama, action and romance, but something we wouldn’t recommend.
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