Baadshah

Raj, who thinks himself a great detective while chasing small jobs, falls by accident into an assassination plot. The target is the state's new chief minister. He lands the job of protecting her, moves through one disguise after another and tries to find the real killers. The film is not interested in crime. It is interested in an actor playing with his own star identity: Shah Rukh Khan takes on dozens of disguises, speaks straight to camera and mocks his own persona. All of the film's energy comes from that. The form is nineties Indian action comedy: songs, disguises, chases and outsized fights. The structure draws visibly on Hollywood comic thrillers of the pre-Rush Hour years. Abbas and Mustan directed. The pair were turning out thriller and action work in India one film after another through the nineties. Twinkle Khanna plays the chief minister's daughter and Rakhee Gulzar the chief minister. Who it is for: viewers who like Shah Rukh Khan's comic side and nineties Indian action. Who it is not for: anyone after coherence. The plot keeps forgetting itself, the running time is long and some of the humour is too coarse now.