Spoilers ahead
SRK is a name that always makes our hearts race faster because he lives in our hearts and rules over them – “Dilo ka Baadshah jo hain”. Ironically, Shah started his career as an antagonist, playing negative characters in films like Darr, and Baazigar which paved more opportunities for him in the film industry, bringing him into the limelight.
However, SRK henceforth was frequently seen playing the quintessential Romantic hero who brought him fame in films such as DDLJ, KKHH, K3G, Yes Boss, and Dil Toh Pagal Hai, though he tried his hands at something different in films like Baadshah where he played the role of a detective, in Dil Se where he played the role of a journalist, SRK shouldered the responsibility of awakening the consciousness of his countrymen fighting against corruption and terrorism in these two films. In the early years of his career however, his aura as the King of Romance always overshadowed these roles and confined him to playing the role of romantic heroes until Don 1 and 2, which once again bewitched us with the charm of SRK as an antagonist in the later half of his career and made him the ultimate reel world Don of the 21st century.
Over the years SRK has played characters of diverse range to prompt the collective social conscience such as Amar from Dil se, a journalist who went out of his way to protect and save his country from terrorism, Mohan Bhargava from Swades, a NASA scientist who returned to his country during a leave in his project and then tried hard and was successful as well to better the living conditions of the people residing in his native village, Rizwan Khan from My Name is Khan, an autistic man who preached the message that all Muslims aren’t terrorists and terrorism has no religion, Kabir Khan from Chak De India, a hockey coach who even after enduring innumerable humiliation guided the Indian women hockey team making them win the World Cup.
Yet the past few years haven’t been good for SRK, his films lagged behind because his fans were weary of witnessing SRK enacting the same roles, It was a mundane experience witnessing him in films like Chennai Express, Dilwale, Jab Harry Met Sejal, Fan and lastly Zero, all these films were deficient in different aspects and therefore didn’t yield the desired box office collection as well as positive response from the audience.
After 2018 and Zero’s disaster at the box office, watching SRK on screen became a distant dream for all Srkians until this year which gifted us with Pathaan marking Shah’s glorious return to the Film Industry. SRK has previously done films brimming with patriotic fervour and Pathaan and Jawan are no different than his previous films. In both these films, he considers himself to be a harbinger of justice in order to vanquish the evil that plagued his country.
The many faces of SRK in Jawan
The plot of Jawan unfurls the corruption embedded in our nation and shows the countrymen how to put up a brave fight against this corruption. Issues such as – the exploitation of farmers leading to their suicide, the corrupt government ministers who give false hopes to citizens of the country and use the money of the nation to fulfil their desires instead of fulfilling the basic needs of people, the amoral industrialists like Kaalie who the existing government favours despite their misdeeds, are catered around in the film.
Jawan is a socio-political drama that makes us question our responsibility as a citizen in choosing the government of our country.
In films such as Duplicate, Om Shanti Om Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi we have seen SRK playing dual roles within a film and Jawan can be added now to the same list of such films. In Jawan, SRK is seen in many avatars, and all of them boils down to the character of an unflawed superhero who ultimately triumphs over defeating the villain in the end.
1. Azad Rathore as Jailer
Azad Rathore is the jailer of a woman’s prison in Mumbai. He was born in this jail when his mother was treacherously imprisoned and was later hung. Azad was raised by the jailer Kaveri who became his amma for the rest of his life. Azad engaged his prisoners in making prosthetics for physically disabled children and school uniforms for underprivileged children across the country. He together with them worked towards bettering the living conditions of the poor in his society.
2. The bald Azad Rathore
Azad Rathore has two sides: one is of a jailer, and the other is of a torchbearer of justice who, along with his squad consisting of the inmates of prison- Lakshmi, Eeram, Ishkra, Kalki, Helena and Jhanvi, the women who are victims of different kinds of corruption and were falsely accused and imprisoned when they tried to raise their voice against the injustice inflicted upon them. The team led by Azad threatened the government by hijacking a metro full of passengers and then hijacking the health minister to release a lump sum amount of money in exchange for the lives of the passengers and health minister.
They donate the money that the government earned through the wrong means amidst the disadvantaged and deprived class of the country so that they can repay their loans and fulfil their basic amenities of life.
Azad, as his name suggests, shows his countrymen through his deeds what freedom truly means and how they should exercise it. The bald Azad uses the name of his father, Vikram Rathore, while he addresses the people during his missions because he once promised his mother to prove his father, who was once a Jawan, a true patriot in front of the nation.
3. Vikram Rathore as a soldier
Vikram Rathore was a commando in the Indian Army who, after noticing faulty weapons, because of which he incurred heavy casualties in his operation to hunt down the terrorists, raised complaint against Kaalie, who was the supplier of weapons.
This enmity between them made Vikram pay a heavy price- his wife Aishwarya was trapped, falsely accused and was hung on the instructions of Kaalie while he was labelled as a traitor and was almost killed by Kaalie and his gang but was luckily rewarded with a second life when a North East Indian tribe rescued him and later rehabilitated in their village.
4. Vikram Rathore as a father
Though Vikram Rathore survived the attack, he lost his memory for thirty long years, but after thirty years, recovered it gradually when he learnt about the fact that he has a son. Vikram embarks on a journey to initially find his son and later to save his son from the clutches of Kaalie and his gang, his arch-enemy. “Bete ko hath lagaane se pehle Baap se baat kar”, he acts as the shield to protect his Simba being Mufasa. Both father and son reunites for the sake of greater good and successfully accomplish their mission in the end.
The story by Atlee has my loopholes. While some parts were unnecessarily dragged, and some subplots have no proper resolution, it’s SRK who keeps the film running brilliantly, playing all the avatars accompanied by the background score designed by Anirudh that bears a sharp resemblance with the background score of the cowboy films of Clint Eastwood.
Atlee puts in his film all the necessary ingredients of a mass masala entertainment movie – power-pack action sequences that dazzle everyone’s eyes and blow everyone’s mind, the dichotomy between good and evil, the twist at the intermission, the cameos of Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Dutt and lastly dance numbers where the audience sways with the hero.
“Jab main villain banta hun na toh mere samne koi bhi hero tik nahi sakta”
SRK honestly shines in whatever roles or characters he plays, be it the protagonist or hero, be it the antagonist or villain; he wins our hearts every time with the hardwork and dedication he invests in enacting the characters. Being an SRK fangirl, watching him onscreen is always a new experience, with people whistling and welcoming him, dancing with him, applauding and cheering at the top of their voices in certain sequences. He definitely deserves every bit of it because whatever he does, he does in the best way possible.
SRK has evolved from a Romantic hero to an Action Hero, and as his ardent fan since childhood, it’s an absolute delight to witness how he has reinvented himself over the past few years. I definitely yearn to see the other sides of SRK as an actor in the upcoming years and sincerely hope that he will venture and discover himself more in future.
Though there’s a dearth of logic in the plot of Jawan but then Jawan is an essential film in the current political scenario of our nation. It speaks volumes on the issues that need to be urgently addressed by the nation’s leaders. Most importantly it preaches the empowerment of women by depicting so many women in pivotal roles throughout the film, women of Jawan are smart, brave and indomitable that might give a reality check to the patriarchal society of our nation- “Ek admi aur 6 ladkiyaan nahin, ek admi aur 6000 ladkiyaan hain. It’s an Army, sir”.
As an SRKian, I can proudly assert that 2023 is SRK’s year, and we are all living in it.