Zero: 2 out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Shah Rukh Khan films are romantic blockbusters with a big heart. Unfortunately they defy logic and, an artistic integrity. Zero is mind-bogglingly dumb and, hits new lows with its sexism, homophobia, and insensitivity. Believe it or not, it opens up with a rape scene dream scenario where the hero saves the girl from a group of lecherous men about to gang rape a helpless woman in the middle of the street. Yes, how filmy! The hero is meant to be a 39-year-old dwarf and, achieves nothing in life except to waste his wealthy father's money because he's pissed off at his father and, God for his short stature. Everyone tells him that he wouldn't even be able to score a man. The cinema hall erupts in laughter. He falls for a brilliant scientist with a motor disease played by Anushka Sharma who is confined to a wheelchair (she seems to have been modelled on the late Stephen Hawkings). She is planning missions to Mars and, yet somehow she falls for a romantic dwarf from Meerut. Our hero dumps her on the wedding day and, goes off to enter a dancing contest to be able to meet a self-hating, item-song actress played by Katrina Kaif. The story rambles on and, the hero realises he still loves the scientist and, goes off to NSAR in the United States to win her back. The scientist of course still loves him, somehow. Ladies and gents, the hero of the film is not a brilliant scientist who makes her country proud but Shah Rukh Khan who accomplishes nothing in the film. A disabled yet genius scientist still loves a man who betrayed her and has no intellect whatsoever. She actually rejects a handsome and doting fellow scientist for a man who dumped her mercilessly. She is sending a human to Mars but who gets to be the real hero in this movie? Shah Rukh Khan! She wheels herself in her 'shaadi saari' in her wheelchair in the last dramatic scene to say good bye to the man who betrayed her. It is astounding how an otherwise phenomenal female character is reduced to a weak, weeping girl, pining after a man who she wants to take back after his shameless transgressions. I give the film 2 stars of 5 because the songs were great and sharp dialogues in the emotional moments with Katrina and Anushka are great. So, is the new universe of space training and astronauts. Yes, so we have moved to one level up and now Shah Rukh Khan gets to fall in love in an astronaut suit, he continues to romance heroines 20 years younger than him in a space shuttle to Mars.