On 27th August 1999, Shah Rukh Khan rocked the big screen. After the success of ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ in 1998, Shah Rukh returned to the screen only once in the whole year. And this time he worked with the director duo Abbas-Mustan. By now you must have guessed that this film was ‘Baadshah’.

This was the follow-up to Abbas-Mustan’s 1993 hit film ‘Baazigar’ with Shah Rukh Khan, which was a huge success. Needless to say, the film created a lot of buzz at the time and people flocked to the screens on the very first day. The film grossed Rs 1.10 crore on the first day, which is good, if you consider that we are talking about 1999. However, the hype for the film fizzled out and the film flopped at the box office. This was because people thought it was a great action film.

But, as Shah Rukh said in the film, he is not Akshay Kumar. No, we are not saying that he cannot do action sequences. What we mean is that, unlike Akshay Kumar’s films at that time, this is not just an action film. In fact, it was primarily a comedy with good action scenes in between. If you ask us, this is one of the best comic films of Shah Rukh Khan and Abbas-Mustan.

‘Baadshah’ is not a film in which the audience can expect any script or character ups and downs. And yet, it has become a cult classic that almost everyone has seen at least once. Not just Shah Rukh Khan’s comic timing, but also that of the supporting actors including Johnny Lever and Amrish Puri. If you remember Moti’s introduction scene, and Puri’s character ‘“This is not a dog’s job” (This is not something a dog can do) If you do this suddenly without laughing, you will miss what we are really pointing to.

The entire film feels like the cast is having fun on the sets. But with Shah Rukh Khan, the action sequences were just as neat, and he is the ‘King of Romance’ for a reason. While audiences rewatching the film today will laugh at the perfect comic timing displayed by Shah Rukh at the time, it was not to the liking of the audiences at the time. However, as audiences of 2024, we absolutely loved how Shah Rukh was on par with people like Razak Khan and Saurabh Shukla.

Needless to say, this is the film that gave SRK his nickname in Bollywood. In fact, even today when the title song starts playing (I watched it again last night, very recently, and I can confirm this), you will want to get up and dance and get lost in the SRK magic. It defines SRK, just like ‘Chaand Taare Tod Laau’ defines his superstardom. And, it’s not just the title song, the music of the film is top-notch and will entertain audiences even today.

The failure of the film and the audience’s inability to see Shah Rukh Khan in a comic role made the actor rethink about whether he could fit into this genre. He had proven his worth as an actor with a good comic sense in ‘Chamatkar’ and ‘Kabhi Ha Kabhi Naa’. However, the failure of ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ in 2000, which had heavy comedy in the first half, somewhere forced the actor to take a step back and return to drama and romance. Much later in 2013 with ‘Chennai Express’, he once again got into comedy-heavy roles.

After a lot of slapstick, a lot of situational comedy, a few twists (after all, it was directed by Abbas-Mustan) and a lot of problematic parts (oh, let’s not even talk about them. They are there, and might bother the modern audience), the film comes to an end. A haphazard ending, but as a viewer, you will love it. ‘Baadshah’ can be called a ‘paisa vasool’ comedy, which has the right balance of everything else.

On the silver jubilee of this film, we can only hope that it remains a classic even after another quarter of a century.