And Saturday keeps rolling along! Flowers are in the window, groceries are put away, and before I start thinking about dinner, I need to get a Shahrukh discussion post up!
This is a pretty simple question, but sometimes simple is good. What do you think is Shahrukh’s best performance?
I just ran through all his movies in my head, and in every movie I can find that one little moment that wasn’t perfect. In JHMS, the crying break down isn’t quite right, in Swades the speeches get a little too speechy sometimes, and so on. The one performance that I can’t find a single flaw in, is Fan. Both performances really.
dontcallitbollywood 
I just rewatched this (again) a few weeks ago, and it is definitely in my top five, along with JHMS, Chak De, Swades, and oddly enough Dear Zindagi, which is so lovely and warm and understated. And then I start thinking “Don! Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi!”
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I was thinking of Dear Zindagi as well, except that his long monologue to Alia at the end isn’t quite right to me. Rab Ne, I think the one moment that isn’t quite right is the sumo fight, but maybe not. A lot of it is certainly perfect.
On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 7:06 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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RNDDJ, Fan, Chak De, Swades (although I haven’t seen it for ages), Paheli, Dear Zindagi. I can’t pick just one.
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Oh, that was meant to RNBDJ – but you knew what I meant…
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Ooo, Paheli is a good one! The biggest problem with that movie, for me, is that his performance is too good. I end up caring about both the ghost and the man and they can’t both be happy.
On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 7:21 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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But they become one in the end and I much preferred the ghost character and he really cared for Lachcho (spelling?)
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I just wish it had been a little more clear that they became one in the end, and exactly how that functioned. More exposition! Less showing and more telling!
On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 7:34 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Fan is an incredible performance but it’s TOO CREEPY!
Does it count if it’s soooo good that you’re too scared to watch it again?
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That’s similar to my problem with Paheli! the performance is so good it almost spoils the movie.
On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 8:25 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I suppose it counts Ticket I myself stopped at half time! Can’t bring me to finish it…
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Paheli as a whole, together with his acting are a fairy tale perfection not forgetting the puppet dance!
On the realistic extreme stands My Name is Khan. Having lived half of my life with different types of handicaps it is impossible to forget his eyes struggling to understand the world; it is more than acting it is a deep identification with real people.
As for the burgeoning actor I think Dil Se; in the initial youthful infatuation, in the wild train dance until the desperate last embrace all future Shah Rukh was already there.
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My Name Is Khan and Fan, hard to choose between those, with Chak De India a close follow, then RNBDJ, Don/Don 2, and JHMS.
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Ooo, Don/Don 2! that’s a good one! It’s such a different performance than his usual, not just that he is playing the villain, but that it is this very stylized exagerated behavior instead of his usual emotional fast talking realism.
On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 9:16 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, I really like the Don movies, but I think it took an interview he did with Omar Qureshi (“Don does not like being asked questions”) to make me realize how different the persona is from his usual.
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As a non-SRK fan, it’s RNBDJ for me because first he’s Suri who is the antithesis of his star persona, and then he’s Raj, which is a wild exaggeration of his persona and yet you can understand why Anushka falls for it, and then Raj and Suri slowly bleed into each other as the story progresses until they are united in the climactic dance and Anushka realizes that she doesn’t have to give up anything in her marriage, she has both the men she loves. It’s a tricky balancing act, he has to know when and how to dial up Raj vs. Suri and make it all funny too. Sumo scene works for me because it’s Raj’s willingness to do something over the top to win over Anushka but he’s doing it as Suri so Anushka doesn’t see it as romantic (at first).
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Shahrukh really is magnificent in these “double” kind of roles. Looking at the comments, I’m seeing how often they come up. I picked Fan, you picked RNBDJ as did some others, and Paheli is in the mix there too.
On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 8:44 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Paheli as a whole, together with his acting are a fairy tale perfection not forgetting the puppet dance!
On the realistic extreme stands My Name is Khan. Having lived half of my life with different types of handicaps it is impossible to forget his eyes struggling to understand the world; it is more than acting it is a deep identification with real people.
As for the burgeoning actor I think Dil Se; in the initial youthful infatuation, in the wild train dance until the desperate last embrace all future Shah Rukh was already there.
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Ooops Sorry. Posted twice 😥
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I thinkI love the double roles films, even Duplicate because they really show how he can be two people. Fan took it to the highest level, but Pahelli and RNBDJ did it so so subtly. He said they made a mistake with the Raj persona in that one, but I don’t agree. Of course while the film wasn’t so great, that moment in Dilwale after Varun has been beat up and he turns back into Kali with just his face is an amazing acting moment. MNIK is a tour de force for sure……Hmmmm this is hard.
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you just made me pull up Netflix and rewatch that Kali moment.
On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 11:50 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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For me Don and Fan.
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Chalte Chalte and JHMS for me. I must admit to having a soft spot for Chennai Express because it’s the first Shah Rukh movie I saw. Minus the horrid dwarf scene which I would vanish with a magic wand if I could! I agree with all the other movies listed too. I’d add Raees to this list.
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I also have a soft spot for Chennai Express! Again, minus the dwarf. But if you embrace the sort of whimsical over the top style, it’s kind of a wonderful way of dealing with Shahrukh’s age and romantic image. Plus, I sincerely love the dramatic feminist speech at the end. And also the fight scene.
On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 8:49 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes. And the songs are so good. I was charmed by his complete lack of faux dignity as a “star”. The man will do any silly thing for a role including laugh at himself. And he has lovely chemistry with Deepika, of course.
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It’s a great one for showing how he can pull dignity out of lack of dignity as needed. It doesn’t feel like his heroic ending is out of character with the rest of it, any more than in Baadshah or Dilwale or anything else.
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First time I saw srk I thought he is overacting, but I liked him anyway, it take me a while to see how good actor he is, his Performance in Chak De India made me speechless, he was really really good, The same thing for Dear Zindagi, his Performance the only thing make me see this movie again, I really was convinced that he was a psychiatrist, a good one too,
Then a long series of very good performances.
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He was so good in Dear Zindagi it almost damaged the movie for me. He wasn’t supposed to be the lead, and yet he was the character I was interested in the most.
On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 4:46 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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