Shah Rukh Khan has ruled the Hindi film Industry for over a decade and he shows no signs of slowing down. Armed with infectious energy, sardonic wit, great charm, disarming dimples and the newly-acquired six-pack abs, SRK turns 42 yesterday. We celebrate some of his best films and roles even as we await the release of Om Shanti Om on November 9.

Happy Birthday, SRK!

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Dev Saran is the most cynical character Shah Rukh Khan has ever played on screen. Karan Johar dared to swim against the tide with a bold storyline chronicling an extra-marital affair. Shah Rukh Khan limps his way into our hearts after an accident crushes his football career and his self-esteem. Despite a huge supporting star cast, SRK had no problem standing out — arms spread wide. Full marks to KJO and SRK for making Dev so flawed, so full of his own bitterness and so irritating at times, instead of soft, romantic and irresistible. The Rani-Shah Rukh affair was as real as it gets.

Chak De! India

A film on hockey? No.

A hockey film with no heroine? No way.

A hockey film with the protagonist as a defeated hero? You must be crazy.

But Yash Raj Films dared to be different with Chak De! India. Akshay Kumar had reportedly refused the protagonist’s role because he found it too unconventional. Chak De! was the story of a disgraced hockey star seeking redemption after seven years of anonymity by returning to the game as a coach of the Indian women’s hockey team. Following the tepid Ta Ra Rum Pum and the disastrous Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Yash Raj and wonderboy Shah Rukh scored really big with Chak De!. Shah Rukh dumped designer wear for simple shirt and trousers, grew a stubble and cut out all over-the-top histrionics. He has never looked or acted better. Period. On the IMDB list of best sports movies, Chak De is fifth, ahead of Cinderella Man, Rocky and Lagaan!

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Come Fall In Love, read the tagline of Aditya Chopra’s debut. What nobody knew then was that Bollywood buffs around the world would fall head over heels in love with Raj and Simran. Aditya Chopra named Shah Rukh Khan’s character Raj after Raj Kapoor. Shah Rukh shot to superstardom with DDLJ and became his generation’s hero number one. Shah Rukh has later admitted quite a few times that he never expected the grand success of DDLJ and he was, instead, more certain of the box office draw of Rakesh Roshan’s Karan Arjun that released around the same time. DDLJ was all about immortal lines, memorable sequences, and above all about Simran and Raj. DDLJ smashed all records, became bracketed with the biggest Bollywood success stories of all time and gave birth to Brand SRK. On April 13, 2007, the film completed a run of 600 weeks — a world record.

Swades

Basking in the afterglow of the Lagaan phenomenon, director Ashutosh Gowariker chose to tell an interesting story, through what was almost a docu-drama, about a top-notch Indian scientist at NASA who returns to his village in India and rediscovers his roots. Shah Rukh Khan the actor rather than the star shone bright as he delivered a controlled and powerful performance. The scene where he sees a boy selling water on the tracks remains etched in memory. Though Shah Rukh won some Best Actor awards for the film, it failed at the box office and was dubbed preachy, long and dry. But Mohan Bhargav remains one of Shah Rukh’s defining roles.

Dil Se

In 1998, Mani Ratnam, Shekhar Kapur and Ram Gopal Varma joined hands to give us Dil Se. Shah Rukh danced with abandon atop a moving train in Chhaiyya chhaiyya and brought an amazing energy to the haunting Satrangi re. As Amar Varma, an All India Radio journalist in strife-torn Kashmir, he was convincing and endearing. In a moving scene on a hill bathed in moonlight, he tells Manisha Koirala the three things he hates about her and then proceeds to tell her why he loves those very three things. His intensity, playful yet powerful, won him many new women fans. Dil Se was not a typical Bollywood film, and this was reflected in its box office run (or the lack of it). But Shah Rukh won applause and adulation for playing the obsessed lover to perfection.

Bollywood News Service

(What message do you want to give Shah Rukh on his 42nd birthday? Tell t2@abpmail.com)