Once upon a time, Shah Rukh Khan spread his arms and leaned backwards. Bollywood was never the same again. One has strong desire to mention a phrase like ’the rest was history’, but in case of Khan, the ‘history’ just keeps repeating itself. Over the years, Khan has struck that pose (or has been forced to) so many times that, although it can be categorized as his trademark, it sure has lost its charm. [caption id=“attachment_2513966” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Screengrab from the video. YouTube[/caption] The same analogy can be drawn for the video for Rohit Shetty’s latest Dilwale song Gerua. The video starts with Khan spreading his ~wings~ arms and giving that look to the camera (cue Khan fans hyperventilating), followed by a Kajol staring into space, looking lost (and quite understandably so, as she is standing in the middle of a lake). Cue Khan emerging from a cloud of white birds (we are still trying to figure out the species) and Kajol’s saree, long enough for two, floating across the frame (wait, where have we seen that before?). At this point of time (which is just thirty seconds into the video), if you have watched enough Bollywood songs, you can guess the rest of the sequences about to unfold. The video is practically both of them supporting each other’s weight, clearly made to scratch your nostalgia itch. As for the ~scenic locations~ CGI, although we hope it could be put into better words, it can be described in just three characters, b, a, and d. The amount of lens flares, artificial skies and rainbows are enough to make even JJ Abrams and Tim Burton nervous. And did we mention the song features Khan in blue and red velvet jackets while flaunting glasses of the same colour? And, Kajol and Khan can walk, or rather, run on water. But that’s a known fact, so we wont get into that. And lest we forget, Kajol looks different. Shetty, really? Yes, we understand the appeal of all this, but a multi crore budget film sure calls for a minuscule amount of effort on part of the creative team and the director. Yes, we loved Kajol and Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. But that was 1995, this is 2015. Watch the video in question below: