Yesterday morning around 9 am thousands of people across the globe spent three hours watching the movie ‘Jawan’. This was the day (07.09.2023) this movie is released. The hero is Shah Rukh Khan (SRK). People are going crazy watching the movie. This movie is a super unprecedented hit. Everyone of the team worked hard to make ‘Jawan’ the way it is. I will certainly say they all deserve the greatest reward they are getting in this super hit film.
I have a personal but profound question. I said it is personal and profound because I am not a movie goer. In my childhood, every movie looked great…not anymore! What is it that any movie goer expects to see in a movie? Probably lots of entertainment, some romance and a bit of knowledge…and things similar?
People have had enough of Deshbhakti, Nationalism, Deshpremi, Robinhood, corruption, wicked politicians, lazy police, voting rights, revolution etc. in movies. My entire life I have been seeing movies of that nature only. No choice exists! Nothing has changed during the last 50 years! A hero can take 10 bullets in his chest and survive; he can fight 100 goondas etc., were attractive some 50 years ago. Even in comic books the hero dies after taking 10 bullets!
My review of ‘Jawan’ would be is that it is a super hit movie; people will love it; commercially a huge success. All is great with this movie. No complaints whatsoever of its greatness and success.
SRK is nearing 60. He has spent his entire life before the camera. He lived the lives of various characters in those movies. He proved himself as an actor, as the best actor, as the darling of the masses, as a money earner…and so on. To put it simply, there is nothing left for him to prove to the industry or to his fans or to the people of the world. His passion towards his work propelled him beyond competition and money. There is nothing left. He is alone at the top.
Life is too short and too precious. With the movies like ‘Jawan’, SRK must ask whether his soul is satisfied with his work. After enacting character like the ‘Vikram Rathore’, is getting sound sleep? If he thinks that his soul is satisfied with his work in this movie and he is getting sound sleep, then Jawan is, indubitably, beyond super hit. Otherwise it will remain as a blockbuster movie which the people and the SRK will forget a month later!
The distinctions like Art film / commercial film / mass film etc., are not applicable to SRK. It is plain stupid to talk of these distinctions when we talk of SRK films. The moot question is whether SRK’s chest will swell with pride watching this movie 3 years later? Will his daughter or sons feel that their father did a good and memorable film in ‘Jawan’ 20 years from now? If the answer is positive for the above questions, then ‘Jawan’ is a super hit movie.
To put it differently, do these kinds of movies fit the stature of SRK? It is like the Sachin Tendulkar playing University level cricket! People want entertainment and SRK is amply providing it. I am taking you beyond this. People want to see the work of Leonardo DaVinci in his Monalisa even after 600 years! People love the work of Charlie Chaplin even today. People love to read the books of Kalidas Ji again and again. The work of Mr. Raj Kapoor in ‘Mera Naam Joker’ was soul satisfying to the actor and loved by the people of today! I do hope ‘Jawan’ will fall in this category for SRK. Otherwise, it will be like ‘Operation successful, but the patient died’ – ‘Jawan’ is a super hit but the actor is forgotten! Can there be a bigger curse to a showman like SRK?
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
