Shah Rukh Khan, it’s a name which is synonymous to joy, love and inspiration to millions of Indians across the globe. Now, it may sound surrealistic but the Delhi boy with no filmy connection who started his movie career with Deewana in 1992, celebrated his 29th year in the industry just yesterday. Granted, this man is an epitome of romanticism for his fans as majority of his roles over the years were of romantic lovers, but make no mistake, whenever this man stepped into some other territories of acting, he dug out gold. Yes, few of those films may have not garnered the same commercial success as his regular works but they have surely managed to gather a lot more critical appreciation from him.
Here goes five such non-romantic films of SRK, which may be underrated but reflects pure brilliance:
1. Hey Ram (2000)
One of the earliest non-romantic films of Shah Rukh Khan’s career, this film is actually a brave and bold choice for him because he played a supporting role in this one. Surely, when his career was picking as leading man, it’s obviously a brave decision for him to move from the spotlight and be the supporting actor. Hey Ram is one of the extremely artistic and controversial films ever made in India in the backdrop of depicts India’s Partition in 1947 and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse. Acted, written, directed and produced by Kamal Haasan, SRK played a Pathan Muslim friend of Haasan’s character Ram, Amjad Ali Khan and how this Muslim man’s life changed after partition of India. A relatively small yet an extremely significant and magnificent act by Khan, which won many appreciations at the time of it’s release. This film is available on Amazon Prime Video.
2. Josh (2000)
Looks like the year 2000 was a defining year of Khan’s career. After Hey Ram, Josh was released in 2000 and this film once again showcased the other side of SRK. Shot in the backdrop of politically and socially rag-tag Goa in 1961, this film is loosely based on American classic West Side Story and tells a story of frequent gang war between two local gangs of Goa’s Vasco town, eventually leading to the secret of the ownership of the town itself. In this multi-starrer film, Shah Rukh Khan again appears as supporting yet significantly important cast member as Max Dias, the extremely tough Portuguese-Christian gang leader of Eagle gang, who’s always in a rush to pick fights with Rival gang Bicchoo, of Hindu migrants. The film was commercially successful but it will always be one of those movies where Khan was the anti-hero with an attitude who eventually headed to a wrong path. This film is available for free on YouTube.
3. Swades (2004)
Widely considered the greatest and the most underrated film of Shah Rukh Khan, this film was actually years ahead of its time and now Indian film fraternity literally regrets that they didn’t give enough appreciation critically and commercially to this film when it was released. It’s a story of Mohan Bhargava played by Khan, a scientist in NASA who comes back to India in search of his nanny who used to take care of him when he was child and when he finally finds her and witnesses the situation in her village, it changed Mohan’s life who planned to dedicate his knowledge for the betterment of the village as well as his own country. A masterpiece by Academy Award nominated director Ashutosh Gowariker, this film actually showcased SRK as a simple man without any commercial charisma. You should definitely check this film out on Netflix.
General trivia though, this film is inspired by the story of Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi, an NRI couple who returned to India and developed a pedal power generator to light remote and off-the-grid village schools.
4. Chak De! India (2007)
The speech of “70 minute” has almost immortalized the role of Kabir Khan in this movie, played by Shah Rukh Khan. Inspired by the life of Indian hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi, who faced extreme accusations of throwing the match against Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games and went into hiding for a long time, but returned as a coach for the India women’s national field hockey team who won the Gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games under his coaching, this film made Shah Rukh Khan, literally the biggest film star in the country. His attitude towards the game, his unshakable speeches and his emotional reactions towards Indian flag, all these expressions are unforgettable. One of the greatest sports dramas made in the country, Chak De! India is available on Amazon Prime Video.
5. Dear Zindagi (2016)
The last but definitely not the least, one of the smartest and most practical films of Shah Rukh Khan’s 29 years career is another film where he was not the lead. A modern female centric film, led by Alia Bhatt, the film is a story of a cosmopolitan and independent working woman, Kaira who suffers severe mental trauma and goes on to seek professional help in Goa from a middle aged psychological counsellor, Dr. Jehangir Khan, played by Khan. Just like the other four roles, this was also a non-romantic and a supporting role with which Shah Rukh Khan did complete justice. Though Alia Bhatt did a commendable job but Khan proved with this film that be it a role spanning 120 minutes or 20 minutes, he has the ability to own the role and the stage and that’s why he is the ‘King of Bollywood’. By the way, Dear Zindagi is also available on Netflix for you to check out.
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