Shah Rukh Khan at 60: Rajs and Rahuls are fantasy—but the broken Dev Saran from KANK stings with reality

Growing up on Shah Rukh Khan films is like living on a diet of sugary sweets — his romances — with a side of samosas and chutney in the form of his comedies like Duplicate, Badshah, and the sweet slice-of-life Yes Boss. Comic SRK is where the actor leans into his snarky, breezy, and candid self, the same charm we see in his interviews. The humour carries that signature smirk and wit, making these roles far more rewatchable than the grand romances he became synonymous with.

Give me a Manu Dada or Badshah any day.

Yet in his career of traversing between the flowery love stories, terrifying and obsessive stalkers, to a disgraced hockey coach, there’s one particular role where he was so unlikeable, and yet, one of the realest characters that he had played in his career. And that's Dev Saran from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, one of Karan Johar’s most complex films that explored the idea, of what if you love someone else, after marriage?

At the beginning of the film, Dev Saran is a victorious footballer, who has just scored the winning goal. His glamorous and busy wife Rhea cheers him over a phone call but the cracks in their marriage are apparent: He forgot their anniversary, and she didn’t come for the game.

But, as he breezily tells the doubting almost-runaway bride Maya (Rani Mukerjee) a few seconds later, he’s happy with his life. “Humne apni zindagi bana li (We have made our life),” he says. But that’s not the question that Maya had asked: She wanted to know if he still loved his wife.

This conversation is one of the most profound exchanges in a Karan Johar film. There’s no drama or long-winded speeches—just a series of quiet, telling words. What is love, really? It reimagines Johar’s famous Kuch Kuch Hota Hai dialogue, where SRK had flamboyantly said, “Pyaar dosti hai” (love is friendship), explaining that he couldn’t love someone until they were his best friend.

In KANK, however, the logic runs deeper. Sometimes friendship itself can be so overwhelming that there’s no room left for love. This is the dilemma Maya faces on the eve of her wedding—she has loved her fiancé only as a friend. As SRK says with amused resignation, the days of epic love have faded. Just get by with a little romance.

She gets married, nonetheless. Dev has an accident, that turns him into a toxic, bitter, angry human; ready to lash out at everyone.

His marriage begins to buckle under the weight of his own misery, as his wife is just too tired of his sniping while trying to lead a successful job to manage a household and a child. He is constantly reactive, to the point that a simple request about changing his suit scrapes an already-gaping wound. Neither does he give Rhea a chance to bandaid these grievous wounds, let alone heal them.

So, he keeps hurting her with words and slights.  

She’s embarassed of him, he insists. Later, he has no words of support, when she tries to tell him about a lucrative career opening in London. “It’s always about you, you and you.” In a brutal scene, Rhea cracks and chides him for his unsuccessful life, intentionally hurting him. “How does that feel? Pain. That’s all you have ever given me.”

It’s a seething storm of bitterness and Rhea is tired of trying to break through, rightfully so.

And that’s where Maya has a breakthrough. She doesn’t mollify or pamper him by any means; but they share a peculiar understanding of what it means, to feel hollow and inadequate in their relationships.  And after many heated words, the two decide to save their marriage and are so half-hearted with their attempts, and instead, fall in love, while unfortunately, breaking the hearts of their spouses.

KANK is flawed for a lot of reasons, no doubt. However, SRK’s portrayal of a broken, bitter man is somehow visceral: You hate Dev; you hate what he does to Rhea, but you are drawn to the actor.

There's no hint of the smarmy Raj here. SRK is almost haunting as he plays a man, so wrapped up in his insecurities and failures that he makes everyone's life around him miserable. He is that father who projects his unfulfilled dreams on his child.

And yet, it’s different, and for once, there’s no excessive romanticisation and justification of his toxicity, which was a problem that had followed his romantic leads throughout the 90s, and that’s a discussion for another day, as much has already been written about it. In KANK, he is toxic. Everyone knows it. Could the story have focussed on Rhea getting her happy ending instead of Dev? Yes, I wish it did.

Nevertheless, Dev knows that he is the most difficult, cantankerous human being. He knows that even if he did find love; he had broken someone else’s heart. It’s not enough reparation, but his final words to Maya at the end of the film offer some solace: “I want to share my punishment with you.”

Dev Saran is a deeply unforgivable character. But, it’s one of SRK’s best and most grey, because Dev Sarans are always amongst us, while Rahul, Rajs are just the dream.