The epic clash: Raees vs Kaabil

The hyped up epic battle of Kaabil VS Raees is still on. And the box office results are unfolding. The two things you should never predict. Which way the Indian voter and Indian audience will go. Yet I shall as a movie buff and in my opinion, ‘Kaabil’ is winning this battle.

The first stand out feature that goes in favour of ‘Kaabil’ is Hrithik Roshan’s on-screen depiction of Rohan. The actor had a challenge and I am sure he knew when this role was taken up he had to, yet again, play the underdog with a handicap, which he did in ‘Koi Mil Gaya’, and Hrithik had to ensure that the audiences find this performance totally different from that outing.

Not once do you get reminded about ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ in this Rohan from ‘Kaabil’. From the point when he walks to the cops and tells them in a casual tone that he will settle scores on his own and walks away saying – “Iss game main koi lifeline nahi hogee!”. Rohit’s battle for justice becomes the battle of practically every man sitting in the theatre.

Contrast this with SRK’s performance in ‘Raees’. SRK puts in a decent effort but ‘Raees’ is such a strained effort of showing coolth and ruggedness that it shows. ‘Raees’ is not a very clearly written character either.

Is he a ruthless ambitious smuggler? Is he romantic? Is he a social do-gooder? Is he all of this? Although I am sure the director wanted to show ‘Raees’ as all of this, he falters. SRK tries but his limitations as an actor didn’t help.

Compare the screenplays of ‘Kaabil’ and ‘Raees’ -- Kaabil moves at a gradual pace at a focused speed. Post-interval it is laced with so many twists and turns that you just go wow and the icing on the cake is that until the end the twists hit you.

The most brilliant one comes in the absolute end of the movie through the senior cop’s investigation. ‘Raees’ is a story of a crime lord and then it does not have thrills. You can well imagine that the not-so-intelligent writers’ team of Raees has used the sole catcall value and it comes from those three odd dialogues, which we have heard in trailers already.

‘Raees’ has not one moment of high drama. It could be an excellent cop vs smuggler movie given that Nawazuddin was signed. It does not become that. It could be a ‘Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai’ kind of a high drama gangster glorification movie but it is not that.

‘Raees’ could have delved into realistic gangster movie of RGV kind, given Rahul Dholakiya’s experience with realism, it is not that too. The screenplay of ‘Raees’ is basically like a hungry confused kid in a bakery, who jumps from counter of pastries to pizza to desserts but just cannot decide what he wants.

In contrast ‘Kaabil’ has heavy duty one-liners and dialogues. To bring out the wit, sarcasm and in some scenes the entire conclusion of a scene point. ‘Raees’ looks like, with due respect, Rahul Dravid’s batting after watching Sehwag’s slam-bang opening in terms of dialogues. My favourite line is “Joothe pehne rehta...toh shayad bach jaata” I am not going to tell you where this line comes in the movie for that, go watch the film.

The biggest difference between ‘Kaabil’ and ‘Raees’ is this, which makes me confident that ‘Kaabil’ will knock the living daylights out of ‘Raees’ on box office on the weekend.

‘Kaabil’ has a central plot point of “good vs bad” and “justice vs oppression” and is delivered in its full beauty. The director’s conviction backed by a solid plot delivers a drama with which audiences will connect. ‘Raees’ has confusion written in capitals over it.

It talks about every issue and focuses on none. It shows glimpses of the plot points and delivers none. So much that actors like Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub get reduced to yes-men kind of pathetic status on screen.

The bottom-line is that ‘Kaabil’ has all the do points and ‘Raees’ doesn’t.