Baadshah (1999)

Silly, but very enjoyable, Baadshah is a spoof of detective shows, action thrillers, and romance. Baadshah (Shah Rukh Khan) is an adept but somewhat foolish private detective with four partners. The movie open with Baadshah impersonating a mafia don, gambling on cards, and winning a small fortune in cash and diamonds. He promptly turns it over to his client who asked him to recover the diamonds. We see Baadshah is ba-a-ad. He's cool, svelte, quick on the draw, adroit on his feet, and ready for action. We also see his foibles, his conceit, and his humanity. His second adventure involves making Seema fall in love with him, breaking her heart, and leaving her to marry the son of his client. Baadshah is successful, but he ends up falling in love himself. Before his client can marry his son to Seema, they are arrested and sent to prison for fraud and robbery. In the meantime, Baadshah takes a third case involving a kidnapping of a young girl. It is at this point the the audience is treated to the unexpected plot development: unbeknownst to Baadshah, a plot is afoot to assassinate the female government figure, known as "Ma" to all of the land. In an attempt to foil the plot, the secret police plot a counter move involving a secret agent to whom they give the code name, Badshah. From that point on, we have a case of mistaken identity and the plot becomes very convoluted, amusing, and fun. Jokes and irreverent references about politics, movie stars, tongue in cheek dialogue and dance moves are interspersed throughout the movie. LOL several times.

Shah Rukh sports tons of costume changes in designer fashions and plays with the irony and facetiousness in the script. Some of the situations are way over the top; for example, in one of the typical Bollywood romance song and dance episodes - you know, the ones where the loving couple express their devotion through song and dance in Switzerland, quick scene change to the beach, quick scene change to the meadow, etc. - Baadshah and Seema dance with Swiss goat girls and then end up lying together on a Swiss blacktop road with a car speeding up toward them. That's simply ridiculous and funny. Johnny Lever is also in this movie and plays Baadshah's sidekick. He does a good job, doesn't get too loud, and he's not campy. So even though most of the movie is over the top, Johnny Lever is restrained. The female lead, Twinkle Khanna, sports a Demi Moore haircut after the intermission...