As the Jawan fever peaks, here we do the inevitable: Pick the 10 best Shah Rukh Khan movies you should have already watched. This is a personal choice, and in this pick we have deliberately left out some of the obvious candidates like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dil Se, Darr, Baazigar, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, My Name Is Khan, Devdas, Karan Arjun, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Veer Zara, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi et al. You know, this is not an objective list but a subjective compilation.
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Best Shah Rukh Khan Movies
Here are some of our favourite movies starring SRK.
1) Fan (2016)
It is among the most self-aware performances of Shah Rukh Khan in which he plays his own self, a superstar and also a dangerously fixated fan. The film is a multi-layered meta-delight that was unfortunately misunderstood. Aside from anything, you can watch it for SRK’s knowing performance of the actor and the star all rolled in one. He brings out superstardom and the price he has to pay for it in the most powerful yet poignant way.
2) Raees (2017)
Another of his misunderstood films, Raees, is a wholesome package of action, romance and drama—a complete entertainer, like its main man. As a bootlegger in the film, SRK invests the character with the decency that you wouldn’t otherwise associate with it. His role has many shades, but the film becomes uneven in capturing them. He is a criminal who cooks for his wife and a bad man with the heart to shed a tear for his mentor before he kills him. It is a bravura SRK show all the way. Pity the film didn’t impress the critics.
3) Chak De India (2007)
Normally, sports films, especially those made in India, tend to do the underdog and emotional part well but lose out on the actual sports segment. But Chak De India was a happy exception. The women’s hockey match portions stood out for realism, and SRK as the beleaguered Kabir Khan looking for redemption was top-notch. He casts aside his superstardom and plays the character with the right amount of believability. It is amazingly heroic. It adroitly mixes patriotic fervour with sporting flavour. And the music, especially the title track, is most rousing. It remains the anthem in many sporting contests involving India.
Watch Chak De India on Prime Video
4) Chennai Express (2013)
As far as mindless masala potboilers go, this is among the endearing ones. It rides mostly on SRK’s comic timing, the winsome on-screen equation with Deepika and most hummable songs. The film gets its Tamil references wrong, Deepika’s pronunciation seemed spoofy, yet when you were watching the film in the theatre, nothing really matters. Rohit Shetty’s over-the-top approach pays rich dividends because SRK’s charm balances it beautifully. One of the mainstream fun movies that, on a bad day, could be the exact opposite.
5) Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992)
This is among the movies that made Shah Ruk Khan the actor that we have come to know now. An underdog who arrives in Mumbai as naive and strikes it rich, loses his head, comes crashing down from the highs of his success and then finds love and life. It is a beautiful story made better by SRK, Juhi and Nana Patekar. The famous ‘palat’ scene in DDLJ takes its origin from here. Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman showed us that SRK has it in him to play the many shaded characters.
6) Zero (2018)
Mounted on an ambitious scale, Zero takes the viewer into a fantasy land, a near-impossible adventure of a dwarf who (sort of) has a brief romance with a movie star before traversing a bizarre territory. In the film, especially in its first half, SRK has fun that he is only capable of on-screen. Directed by Aanand L Rai, Zero is for those who don’t fit in. Towards the end, the film becomes bizarre. But till then, it was all fun and heart, the kind that you rarely get in Bollywood cinema.
7) Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1994)
There was a time when heroes were reluctant to play a loser on screen. And then SRK came along to break all the templates and formulas. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa is a great example of that. In this romantic comedy, a love triangle at that, SRK plays the conniving loser. Again, he infuses a tough character with grace and poise. A man of slightly questionable morals who doesn’t shy away from lying if it suits his purpose. Ayushmann Khurrana is now acing the flawed lead character roles. But remember, SRK got there first. And dare one say, better!
8) Anjaam (1994)
In a sense, this can be clubbed as the trilogy of hero-as-villain movies featuring SRK. Darr and Baazigar being the other two. Rahul Rawail’s film ventured into a space that was not only edgy but also extremely dark. SRK again aced the obsessive lover role, ready to go to any lengths. This was the first movie that paired him with Madhuri Dixit. They were ethereal on screen. But the torment she is put through on-screen would be flagged as inappropriate by present-day wokes.
9) Swades (2004)
If SRK can play the baddie with conviction, he can be equally felicitous as an innocent do-gooder. Swades is a great example of that. As a NASA scientist who pays his elderly nanny a visit in a tiny village in India, his life changes when he realizes that his talents are needed much more in his homeland than abroad. It is a film that is international in its emotions and treatment. The songs of AR Rahman add an extra dimension to this feel-good emotional movie. It fetched many awards for SRK. No surprises there.
10) Om Shanti Om (2007)
This entertainer looks at Bollywood in a meta way. Again, one of those movies whose heart was misread by many, Om Shanti Om is a glorious spoof of the typical Hindi vengeance drama, which was highly popular in the 60s and 70s. The film takes off from the 70s and becomes a reincarnation story in an agreeably funny way. It is a celebration of Bollywood, and it needed a show-boating star like SRK at the top. And it also announced the arrival of Deepika Padukone as a diva. An extravagant entertainer the film was. And it is also a description that fits SRK to a T.
So those were our picks for the best Shah Rukh Khan movies. Let us know what is your favourite in the comments below.
2 Comments
Top tier list. I would also add Dil Se to the list as well. His expressions in some of the scenes was impecceable.
This list is NONSENSE! The real list is
1) Swades (His BEST performance ever)
2) Chak De India
3) Om Shanti Om
4) Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
5) Kal Ho Na Ho
6) Dil Se
7) Raees
8) Don
9) Pathaan
10) Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa