I am going out on a limb to say that Zero is definitely not bad as many reviews want you to believe, Not questioning any of the critics here, but Zero is an unusual movie made in Bollywood that deserves to be seen with different expectations. The content of the film will be highly divisive among the audiences, especially the sequences of space training in the second half. Zero is not without its flaws, with many claiming that the second act doesn't live upto the entertaining bits of the first. But then which movie is? Zero Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan’s Infectious Charm, Anushka Sharma’s Brilliant Act and Katrina Kaif’s Stunning Performance Win You Over!

In Zero, director Aanand L Rai has done a good job of presenting a different take on love, that retains his trademark touches, only this time set in an outlandish scenario. The leading man, Shah Rukh Khan, who is also the producer, has spared no expense in making the film look believable on screen what with a vertically challenged leading man, meteor showers and rockets going to space. Also, this is his most layered, most rounded and most believable character in years, even if highly flawed. Anushka Sharma shows why she is one of the finest actresses in town, while Katrina Kaif gives her career-best performance in Zero.

Writer Himanshu Sharma, however, has got the most flak by critics for his allegedly sloppy writing. Which is unfair, since he and Rai had made this heady but entertaining concoction of magic (man making stars rain) and sci-fi (man being sent to the stars) with some touching bits of romance, some fine hilarity and a lot of meta references. If you have done looking for the flaws in the film, perhaps you might or might not have noticed those sly nods, hints, Easter eggs and meta references in the movie, 18 of which I have listed below. HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Bauua's Selfie Love 

One of the many things some viewers found hard to digest was how flawed Bauua was as a protagonist. He is narcissistic, self-centred and selfish, though it is not pointed out specifically, he is all that as a result of psychological abuse he had to endure for his height. He needs self-validation in every turn and that's why he takes a selfie, right when he gets up in the morning or before he was going to have sex with Aafia.

Nyctalopia

Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub's character, who is Bauua's BFF, is half-blind. He is also seen finding it difficult to see things in the dark, which is because, thanks to the injury (which is caused by Bauua in childhood), his other good eye is suffering from Nyctalopia or in simple words, night blindness. Which is why he needs a torch to look for things in the low light.

Paying tribute to Both The Khans

We already know that Salman Khan is playing himself in the song "Issaqbaazi", and Bauua Singh is seen paying a lot of tribute to the star even aping his dance moves(which Bhai returns like-wise). Salman's cameo is also a little wink to his real-life equation with Katrina, since he is the special judge for the finals of a dance show whose winner will meet Katrina's character, Babita Kumari.

As for Aamir Khan, though he doesn't physically appear in the film, SRK didn't forget to give a nod to his other good friend, by donning his Dhoom 3 hat.

Thakurs are Meerut's Lannisters

If you wonder how Bauua Singh has so much money to splurge, he is a Thakur from UP and is from a really wealthy background. His equation with his tyrannical father Ashok (Tigmanshu Dhulia) will remind you of the uneasy bond that Tyrion Lannister shares with his father, Lord Tywin Lannister in the HBO series Game of Thrones. Not just the fact that both Tyrion and Bauua are dwarves, but also like Tyrion, Bauua is both disrespectful and yet frightened of his father. While Tyrion tries to rebel by boozing and whoring, Bauua does the same by pranking and spending money. And like Tywin, even Ashok is no fan of his son, beating him up with a belt and even telling Bauua's future father-in-law to take him to America and make money out of him as a showpiece. Who knows, if Bauua had stayed in Meerut for some more time, he would have killed his father with a crossbow while the latter was in the toilet!

The 'Fan' Moment

Bauua's first real-life glimpse of his movie crush, Babita Kumari, mirrors that iconic scene in FAN, when Gaurav meets Aryan Khan. In FAN, Aryan Khan is seen on the top of the wall near Mannat, while Gaurav screams from below among hordes of other fans but his voice gets lost in the screams. Similarly in Zero, as Babita Kumari visits a mall in Meerut and waves to her fans from the top floor, Bauua screams hard to get her attention but fails. Also, the first time that the fan and idol meet face to face in FAN sets the course of (disastrous) events ahead in the film and while also making Gaurav into a reckless entity. Similarly here too, Bauua getting that drunken kiss from Babita Kumari also makes him act rash (running away from his wedding), though he doesn't end up being a psychopath.

Aafia Hints At Her Pregnancy Early On

Aafia having had a baby with Bauua was one of the biggest twists in the second half and it had jolted him to redeem himself properly (more on that later). However, Aafia had already given a hint of that in the first half itself. Moments before he runs away from their wedding, Bauua tells Aafia about Babita's kiss. A disbelieving Aafia laughs at him (which slights him) and says she has Leonardo DiCaprio's child in her belly. Little did we know then that she was saying the truth, well, half of it! There was a baby; it was just not of Leo's.

'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' Dynamics Screwed

Anushka, Katrina and Shah Rukh Khan had last worked together in the late Yash Chopra's Jab Tak Hai Jaan. In that film, Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina's characters were in love, and Anushka's was the key to getting them reunited. Here, Anushka and Katrina exchange their statuses, as it is Babita Kumari who eggs Bauua to be with the one he loves, which is Aafia.

Babita is Ditched By a 'Kapoor'

Babita Kumari's phase of life shown in the film is similar to that of the actress playing her. While Babita was ditched by her boyfriend Aditya Kapoor (Abhay Deol) for a younger actress, Katrina had broken up with a 'Kapoor' IRL months before the shoot for this one begin. So are we to take that the post-breakup depression that Babita goes through is something that even Katrina has gone through in real life?

Ranbir also gets indirectly referenced in another scene that involves Babita flipping the bird at the audience.

Jab Jab Phool Khile

The Bollywood song that Bauua dances on to impress Aafia the first time is "Affoo Khudaya" from the Shashi Kapoor-starrer, 1965 film Jab Jab Phool Khile. Later remade with Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor as Raja Hindustani, Jab Jab Phool Khile is about a poor guide who falls for a rich heiress and how her family looks down upon their relationship. Zero shares a similar theme with this movie, where wealth disparity is replaced with Bauua's height, where a renowned scientist like Aafia (even with her cerebral palsy), is believed to be a catch for him.

The Cameos Stitched Together

While I was disappointed that the cameos in Zero were not as organic as in Om Shanti Om, there is a lot of trivia in that one scene apart from it being the late Sridevi's last screen appearance. All the actresses have worked with Shah Rukh Khan in the past. There is also something special about the scene, since the cameos happen at the success party of Babita Kumari's film. And yet Katrina doesn't share screen with any of them. The funny part is Katrina, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt have a dating history with Ranbir, while Karishma is his cousin.

Bauua tells Juhi Chawla that she recognises talent, which is exactly what happened with the first film that SRK signed Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. Also, Bauua tells late arrival Deepika that she has come straight from a wedding, while she is talking to someone on the phone. Of course, we know what's that about.

The biggest WTF thing about the whole sequence is that some of the actresses have shot their shots separately with Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika and Juhi Chawla even canning their parts on separate days. And yet they are all seen standing together in one frame. Red Chillies VFX team deserves some real applause!

More Sneaky Cameos

Alia Bhatt appears once again in the film when Babita and Bauua attend an award show and she is sitting on the same row as them, though it is a blink-and-you-miss appearance. Also if you look closely, you might also see Rajkummar Rao and Patralekhaa sitting behind them. And Arjun Kapoor and Jaya Bachchan sitting to the left of Shah Rukh Khan.

Babita Doing a Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam remake?

During the montage scene, where Bauua is seen accompanying Babita at various dos, she is seen during a shoot of a film where she is decked in heavy Indian attire and lying on a cuchion looking tipsy. Looks as if Babita is doing a remake of Guru Dutt's classic film, Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam, where she is playing the bored, drunk Biwi. Interestingly, IRL, Priyanka Chopra was to do that role in a planned reboot that never took place despite the star having been a part of photoshoots. And strangely, Katrina was wearing a similar dress as what Priyanka was wearing in the below still!

The Sridevi tribute

While Zero marks Sridevi's last big screen appearance, the movie not only pays her a tribute at the start of the film, but also puts an Easter egg in her name. In a scene set at the film set where Babita is shooting, we can see two huge Sridevi graffitis painted on the walls that I believe are of her characters in Himmatwala and Chandni (correct me if I am wrong!). May her soul rest in peace!

Katrina's 'Pari' Moment

In a scene, Bauua tells Babita that for all UP-ites she is a 'Pari', an angel, whose wings sprout out when she is alone in the room. This line she repeats to her ex-boyfriend when she gives him a metaphorical middle finger and asks him to buzz off. If you recall, Katrina has literally played an angel in Bombay Talkies, an anthology film where she had a cameo in Zoya Akhtar's segment. Another weird coincidence is that Zero's other female lead, Anushka, had both produced and starred in a film called Pari that came out earlier this year.

The 'Zero' Run

After learning that he has a baby with Aafia, a guilt-stricken Bauua runs through the city, giving away his clothes and money to the people he meets on the road and even gets mugged by kids. At one point, he sees a couple kissing, which shifts to a just married couple and then a couple having a playful moment with a baby, that reminds him of what he had missed on. And then at one point, he has lost everything, Bauua does a crazy dance in the middle of the street before going back all the way to retrieve his belongings. This the movie's way of showing he has gone back from 10 to 0 and is now returning from there to redeem himself.

Aafia = Stephen Hawking + Elon Musk?

While it is obvious that Aafia's character is modelled after the recently departed genius Stephen Hawking, he is not the only inspiration. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, known for putting a Tesla in space, has had this dream of colonising Mars with humans. It is a dream even Aafia is obsessed with, who in Zero's universe was the reason why water was discovered in Mars and who is planning to send a chimp to the red planet. Not just that, in the scene where Srinivasan (R Madhavan) proposes to Aafia at NSAR (Zero's equivalent of NASA), we can see a poster behind her that says 'colonising Mars'.

R Madhavan's Meta Casting

Sure, R Madhavan agreed to be a part of the film because of his Tanu Weds Manu director Aanand L Rai. However, there is a lot more to see in the casting than what is just a guest appearance. For one, R Madhavan has a special connection with space movies. He was to play one of the leads in Sushant Singh Rajput's now abandoned space film, Chanda Mama Door Ke. Madhavan is also making his directorial debut with Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, a biopic on rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan, where he is also playing the lead. And guess what Madhavan is playing a rocket scientist in Zero too!

And it doesn't just end here. Madhavan's role in Zero feels like Fate's revenge for what his character did in Tanu Weds Manu series. In the first film, he breaks up Kangana Ranaut's character Tanu's marriage so that she can be with him, while in the second, he drops his own marriage to his wife's doppelganger so that he can be with Tanu. Meanwhile, in Zero, Aafia ditches the plan of marrying Srinivasan at the altar, when she realises she still cares for Bauua. Also, it may be too much of a coincidence, but it was Jimmy Sheirgill's character who gets ditched in both the TWM films and when the actor made a start in his career, he was often compared to Shah Rukh Khan in his looks and performance.

Why Bauua's Space Journey Makes Sense

Zero was criticised by many for the whole NSAR sequence, as they felt it was illogical. It wasn't. Bauua goes through a six-month training period to survive in space which any astronaut goes through. The thing to remember here is that he is not trained to be an astronaut. He is just trained to see if he can survive in space for the scientists there to further their Mars colonisation plan. He is only chosen for the Mars mission because the chimp they selected was not receptive and his family members didn't let him go (a trait Bauua doesn't share). Bauua had nearly the same height as the chimp, and he did well in the endurance tests so he was chosen. As for why they would choose a less-educated man for such an important mission, Srinivasan himself pointed out that all the subject needed to do was go on a cryo-sleep on the way to Mars and back, nothing else (being in cryosleep is why Bauua might also have survived in space when he gets lost during return trip and arrives on Earth after 15 years).

Just like the chimp wasn't MIT-educated, Bauua also just needed the skills to survive there. He is just their chimp, which is why he looks at the camera in Mars the way a primate looks at one. The only thing that makes Bauua's mission personal is because he does it for Aafia so that she can achieve her dream. The chimp would never have had that option!

Agree with our observations here? Do you think we have missed out on other overt nods? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 24, 2018 09:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).