Shahrukh Month Discussion Question: Which Era of Shahrukh is Your Favorite Era of Shahrukh?

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A question for the ages!  Shahrukh versus other actors is easy, but what about Shahrukh versus himself?

You know, it’s too simple to just choose a favorite, let’s go with a ranking system.

Fauji Shahrukh

 

Mid-90s Shahrukh

 

Late 90s Shahrukh

 

Early 2000s Shahrukh

 

Late 2000s Shahrukh

 

Early 2010s Shahrukh

 

Late 2000s Shahrukh

 

Okay, you ready for my rankings?

1 Early 2000s Shahrukh.  His peak fame, his peak attractiveness (the grace of maturity but the energy of youth), and not-so-coincidentally, the era in which I found him.

2 Present day/Late 2010s Shahrukh.  His peak sexiness, and his peak acting power onscreen, he really does get better with age.

3 Mid-90s Shahrukh.  Solidly in the middle for me!  A lot of high quality films and performances, but he didn’t have the calm and skill that would come later.

4 Late 2000s Shahrukh.  He was starting to loosen up, experiment a little with his image, before running back to the safety of what had worked before.

5 Early 2010s Shahrukh.  He was trying to do what he had done before and it wasn’t working in most cases.  A necessary pre-cursor to late 2010s Shahrukh where he is trying everything and anything, but still disappointing.

6 Fauji-Shahrukh.  He was cute and young and enthusiastic, but I miss the skill that comes with age.

7 Late-90s Shahrukh. He was getting to staid, to unexperimental in all ways, his characters felt more like characterizations.

 

 

All of that said, in terms of objective appearances, I think I would no question go:

1 Present Day

2 Early 2000s

3 Late 2000s

4 Mid-90s

5 Fauji-Shahrukh

6 Early 2010s

7 Late 90s

 

 

How about you?  What are your overall rankings and your purely in terms of appearance rankings?

34 thoughts on “Shahrukh Month Discussion Question: Which Era of Shahrukh is Your Favorite Era of Shahrukh?”

  1. Present day SRK is the the only SRK I actively enjoy.

    Second in line is Late 2000s. RNBDJ, Don, and Swades are high points acting wise.

    The rest of his eras just vary with the movie for me, so they are on equal footing.

    Moving forward, he looks his own age, so I would like to see him play his own age more. The hardest part of JHMS was buying that he was born in 1980 when he clearly looks 50+.

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    • Nice to hear that you actively enjoy present day SRK! I do too (obviously) but he is definitely on the decline now, so you and I are in increasingly rare company.

      It seems like Shahrukh goes through phases of popular and not necessarily ambitious, and then cashing in that popularity with some really out there films. I think the 2000s might have been the peak of both (although who knows, he is still working after all). The first half of the 2000s gave him his peak popularity, he was everywhere and everyone loved him. And then the second half gave us RNBDJ and Swades and Om Shanti Om and all the rest of the really odd stuff.

      I loved his performance in JHMS, but yeah, they should have just bitten the bullet and made him older. Change the script slightly (maybe throw in a ten year marriage and an ex-wife back in Canada) and make him 45 instead of 37. It’s already supposed to be this odd pairing of a cynical older tour guide and a very young innocent woman, why not just make the age gap slightly larger?

      On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 4:42 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • Yes!! That would fill in so many of the gaps. The May-December romance wasn’t really stressed upon, and you’ve seen the duo together in other films so it doesn’t look “wrong” right off the bat.

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      • That’s right, I would accept him to be 42 years old, a man had a full life behind him and still have a chance for another life to come

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    • I first read that badge in the opening as 1990, and assumed that it represented the year that he left India/came to Canada instead of the year that he was born. Boom–much closer to real age. 🙂 So I’ve kind of kept that head-canon.

      I agree that the more he plays characters who are 40+ the better for his audience, and hopefully for him too.

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      • I was just looking at his filmography, and ignoring stuff like KKHH and Veer-Zaara where he was the wrong age in the first half and right in the second, and Devdas because it is stupid, there are really only 5 movies where he was dramatically off from his real age, Happy New Year, JTHJ, JHMS, Om Shanti Om, and Raees. Looking at that list it is also clear that it is a very recent problem. So long as he was still generally mid-thirties, people could come up with all kinds of plots for that maturity (Swades, Chak De India, Kal Ho Na Ho, and so on). It was just once he hit definitely over forty that imagination seemed to dry up. Rab Ne and Chennai Express stand out as actually dealing with the problem in an interesting way.

        On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 2:42 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Not old enough! I think he started “acting” his age by then, he made his character generally more mature and confident and responsible seeming. But if you add up all the events of the film and the reasonable time line,a nd you get him going from 25 to 30, not 25 to 45.

            On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 3:08 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Well now I like that movie less. In my mind he did the liquor biz for like 5 years before marrying Mahira, and then they were married for 10 years before having a kid, lol.

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          • Yes! That’s how I thought about it too without paying much attention. But when I had to zero down and look at the scene by scene, they put in lots of clues that his marriage to Mahira is maybe 2 years tops, and his rise in the liquor business is very fast. It just feels like a long time because Shahrukh’s performance makes you feel like he is a 40 year old man post-interval.

            On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 3:55 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  2. My fave era would be from mid-2000’s onwards. Matured a bit, lost the ‘puppy fat’ face. Of course there are his movies from before that era that I like but some that I just can’t watch.

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    • Agree! He is definitely one of those men that was super skinny through their early 20s, then had a metabolism shift, and it took about ten years to catch up and start dieting and exercising. And I think his face is more attractive when his features are a little more carved out of the background, when you can really see the mobility of the eyebrows and lips.

      On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 4:43 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Another reason for him to play his age onscreen! He can stop dyeing his hair for roles and go to his natural silver.

            On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 5:19 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Joyomama I see you have silver hair just like mine and sure you and I are proud of it, BUT we know that at a given moment that was not an easy choice. BUT as “normal” people with “normal” lifes we looked back and accepted parting ways with the old ourselves.
            I completely agree that SRK should go gray and shure he would be gloriously handsome, BUT I imagine such a beloved mith facing the mirror, and seeing that the moment has come to part ways with all the Rajs and Rahuls. It’s like letting go Simran’s hand as the train leaves.
            I have a dear friend from Liverpool tat in such situations say “this is a white knuckle job”!
            In fox gray he can still romance many times. Here in the West those age gaps are not as crucial as I understand they are in the East; remember Love in the Afternoon? Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn, or Sabrina with Bogart!
            White Knuckles SRK; we will follow you until you act a splendid grandfather with the royal dignity of
            Amithabji

            Liked by 2 people

  4. More often than not, I have a strong difficulty to point out something ‘favourite’. I simply love the journey he did from Fauji-Circus-Idiot to Dilwale-Raees-JHMS (regardless the flaws – some of them easily avoidable). If you look at the diversity of steps, nobody else in a position like his had this adventurous mind and the courage to confide in other people.

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  5. My ranking:
    1. Present day SRK – JHMS, Dear Zindagi, Fan. Super, super hot, and I like the movies and the roles
    2. 2000 late and early for Veer-Zaara, Swades, Paheli, Don, Chak De India, RNDBJ – objectively his best decade
    3. Mid-90 for Baazigar, Dar, DDLJ, Karan Arjun
    4. Late 90
    5. Early 2010 my least favourite period . He hasn’t done even one movie in those 5 years (2010-2015) that I like or want rewatch.

    (I’m not counting Fauji because I haven’t seen it, so can’t say)

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    • Early 2010 was so bad! And was a more commercially successful era than now, but so much worse critically.

      On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 4:57 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  6. I tried to do eras in terms of work, but I can’t. My Shah Rukh acting likes and dislikes are all about type of role and co-actors, and much less about other considerations, even quality of the movie. So I have lots to love and a few things to cringe about in every era.

    In terms of looks, my eras are:
    Present Day–will always be number one. It’s cool to be growing old at the same pace as he is, on the same planet, at the same time. Sorry if that’s creepy.
    Early 2000s–peak objective beauty, lost the puppy fat but retained the huge puppy eyes
    Fauji-Shahrukh/Mid-90s/Late 90s–there is not much difference here to me. Just sweet sweet youth.
    Late 2000s/Early 2010s–again not much difference to me looks wise, despite the changing hairstyles of this era.
    I think we need to add a Mid 2010’s category. I’d put this at the bottom because I wish he’d never gone the 6-pack abs route. But then I suppose his body is his own to do with as he likes. 😉

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    • I also always prefer him present day! Which I think is far more creepy for me, since it means I have been lusting after a man old enough to be my father since I was 19, and I continue to do so maintaining the age gap as the years role by.

      Agree about the peak objective beauty, I think his face gets progressively more interesting as he ages, but jsut for an arresting image, early 2000s is where it’s at.

      And I VEHIMENTLY disagree that it is his right to do what he wants with his body!!!!!! I have strong STRONG opinions and I feel he should listen to them (where’s the beard? Bring it back!)

      On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 3:06 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • Yeah, why don’t more interviewers try to pin him down on those points? Forget all the blah-blah about how he chooses his films or whatever, I want to see the aggressive Hard Talk style format looking at the REAL questions, like “what happened to the red-rimmed glasses?” or “when are you going to let yourself go grey?” or “do you know sometimes wearing a tight fitting vest makes you look like a little puppet doll man?”

          On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 3:56 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • Dear Procrastinatrix what an opportune commentary about that silly 6-pack thing! SRK body is of a naturally “fluid“ type with that very very rare gift of moving and dancing apparently without any effort. Many artists pursue painfully this quality with no results because it is not acquired: the good fairies bring it to you on the crib! The 6-pack thing evokes rigidity sweat and fatigue, but I understand this is a contemporary trend and so be it.
      Now as for your comment on growing old with him, that’s really cool! I think it’s very comforting to have him as a companion on the road: it shows that mysterious gift (again the fairies) he has to exude empathy as a human being way beyond the looks or the acting; maybe that is why a generation of fans is waiting to see him crowned in silver to go on together on the same journey

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    • I love that clip. It is such a perfect example of the way his face and voice are overwhelming particularly in the film medium. I can’t think of any young actor who is as arresting onscreen, purely physically.

      On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 4:57 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  9. The first film I saw for Shahrukh was kabhi alvida naa kehna in 2007, and I started watching all his films from 2000. When I finished them, I watched the 90’s movies
    Since 2010 I have been watching every film for him at the time it released
    Early 2000s
    Present Day
    Late 2000s
    Mid-90s
    Early 2010s
    Fauji-Shahrukh

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