The hype is great, movie got really got marketing and promotion, theme songs are catchy, so many critics reviewed the pre-release copy and have given it really good rating and recommended it as a must view. Let's step back and review the movie categorically into various aspects and then you can decide if you really want to watch the movie or spend your time and hard earned money on something different.
Perceived Budget (What is perceived from shots)
The movie got some really good cast and actors and it seems lot of money was spent on the celebrities, but the movie sets and locations seems very limited and in this age and time, one expects more from a A-list movie. Only handful of locations gives one's feeling of movie being made with low budget. It appears, most of money was spent on few main actors and all other people were bought on best-value, including new heroine Mahira Khan.It's an action thriller movie, but not much was spent on shooting any amazing hard to forget thriller scene [apart from Laila maen Laila song ;) ]
Rating : 2 / 5
Story / Plot
If you are teenager and haven't seen many old movies and full of new blood (under 15 mostly), you might feel that it is genuinely new plot and might find it interesting, but if you are born in or before 80s Or have seen transition from B&W to colour movies, and you are expecting to see something interesting new than I would say you will be in pure shock and might be asking yourself "Is it really the plot? Are they really A-class actors? Why they have signed up to the movie? Have they read the script?". The climax is non-existent and you can easily predict where the story/sequences are heading to. Story in monolithic which only revolves around the main character unlike most other movies where there are several stories and they converge to single plot, this is not the case with Raees.Rating: 1 / 5
Acting and Delivery
This is the only category where this movie really shines, all main actors have done justice with their roles. It doesn't feel like that someone is overacting and has not fulfilled what their character demanded. There are few exceptions, the flare between SRK and Mahira was really missing.Rating : 4 / 5
Religious Understanding / Misunderstanding
I don't know why the sect of main character is bought into the mix, SRK is being shown as follower of Shia sect, scene showing him beating himself during Ashura was really unnecessary. I think without giving any background on why Shia follower perform such acts, seems like director was giving indication to peoples that Muslim are brutal in nature and unnecessarily spilling blood is normal in Muslim culture.People normally read stories in western newspaper that Muslim don't want to sell alcohol in store as it is against their religious beliefs, so why the main character was shown as Muslim, who has understanding of his faith, yet he goes into alcohol beverages business against his religious beliefs.
Rating : 1 / 5
Conclusion
I would not recommend people to watch OR not watch the movie, if you like SRK than you will like his acting and it is bit different to other roles he has played earlier, but the movie seems very low budget and mediocre and does not live up to hype it was given.Overall Rating : 2 / 5
SOME CRITICAL POINT / FLAWS
SPOILER ALERT !!!
(Don't continue reading if you are interested in watching the movie)
If SRK has already surrendered in front of the Press, why would one believe the Police narration, that he was trying to run. (No proper thoughts again on story?)
The most hard-core criminal king pins were executed by Raees himself alone, he wasn't given the image that he should be given according to movie's perceived story. (low on budget?)
Nawazuddin Siddiqui had traced Raees's calls and should know how bad/good person SRK is in the movie and he has done most of his work on his own, so there should be no point of holding the grudge against him.
Mahira Khan seems to be same height of SRK, in movie she is always seen wearing flat slippers :( , and SRK seems to be little shy from it.
Permission given to development on land cannot be revoked or it cannot be suddenly turned to the green zone. (Seems like lack of brains on story.)
