First Look Of Shah Rukh Khan in ‘RAEES’ Dampens Expectations. Slightly.

After a Teaser Trailer released more than 1 year ago, we finally get to see a glimpse of Shah Rukh Khan in his next film 'Raees'. Khan appears on promotional short video on his Facebook page, that announces the release of the official Trailer of the film, as well as a live audience interactive event.

Check out the Video released by Shah Rukh Khan for 'Raees'.

Given that it's been so long since we have seen or heard anything official from this film, let's quickly run down what we may have learned from this quick video. Afterwards, check out the in depth article I wrote about what we should expect from Shah Rukh Khan's 'Raees' here.

In the first teaser, we only heard Khan do a voice over narration with certain one liners. We never actually got to hear him speak on camera. With this video, we get a glimpse into the depiction of his characters, and it's kind of disappointing.

Khan speaks and carries himself as an intimidating man of important stature, with a bit of a urban skew to it. It's almost a variation of his character from 'Josh', combined with more serious subdued mannerisms like his role in 'Don'. What is on display is the usual Shah Rukh Khan flair.

Khan imitates his trademark hand gestures of pointing to himself with both hands as a sort of 'who's the man / this guy!' sort of statement. While it's subtle, it's definitely there. Now my wild speculation aside, Khan could definitely be playing up his start persona more for this video, simply because it is promoting the film, and not a trailer for the film itself.

The video itself is almost like a meta segment for fans, which stands to reason that Khan will be charming audiences to join him for the event. May not be an indication of his performance in the film at all.

However, if Khan is going to be playing an anti-hero, rogue, or antagonist with shades of grey, I'm hoping he's not smirking and being coy the entire time. Or at all actually. I hope the film will have the gravitas it deserves and we're not just treated with another Shah Rukh Khan movie that winks at the audience like 'Dilwale' was.

'Raees' releases on January 26th, 2017. Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Farhan Akthar & Mahira Khan. Directed by Rahul Dholakiar.

Let me know what you thought of Shah Rukh Khan's performance in the video above.