Bauua Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) from an affluent family in Meerut is a vertically-challenged. A 38-year-old, he wears his height (4 feet 6 inches) with aplomb. The world sees him as just 'half the man' he is, but the fact remains that Bauua dreams big; his charm, wit and that wee-bit of arrogance make him adorable. Itching to get hitched, he finally meets his 'match' in Aafia Bhinder (Anushka Sharma), a brilliant scientist with cerebral palsy.

In an attempt to stand out from the crowd, we often take the road-less-traveled without realizing where the road will actually take us. Director Anand L Rai with a vision to treat his audience with something that they have never seen before ends up making a completely outlandish film "Zero".

For a couple of decades now, relentlessly citing exceptions like Swades (2004) and Chak De India (2007), viewers (and fans) of actor Shah Rukh Khan have often complained about how he plays SRK on screen, regardless of the script, which pretty much is designed around him playing himself, in some form or the other, anyway.

From Meerut, Bauua Singh is a vertically challenged 38-year-old unmarried man. He is at a point of life where he has accepted the truth of how he can never match up to the normal people. Without any qualms, he lives his life 'king-sized' with his friend played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. He loves the superstar Babita Kumari but at the same time is also have applied at Shaadi.com for marriage.

Do not try and find logic in a Salman Khan film. That became a learning long time ago. Leave your brain at home and enjoy the brawn, we told ourselves. Little did we know we would have to make peace with even brainless Shah Rukh Khan films. So when Aanand L Rai named his film Zero, he probably should have got his Maths correct. Because the name of his film might just be the closest metaphor to what Zero is.

Early on in Zero the novelty and the curiosity of watching Shah Rukh Khan play a vertically challenged fellow wears off much to the film's advantage. Bauua Singh of Meerut is all of four feet and six inches - we get it. But admirably Bauua doesn't indulge in self-pity, and the filmmakers don't make a play for your sympathy.

Unlike their previous ventures, the stakes are high this time. The actor features in a role he hasn't portrayed earlier, while a significant part of the second half has space travel interwoven in its screenplay. Naturally, the expectations are colossal. Without giving away the minutest details of the story, here's the spoiler-free plot: Bauua [Shah Rukh], a 38-year-old man, lives with his family in Meerut. He comes across the profile of Aafia [Anushka Sharma] at a marriage bureau and decides to woo her.

Babita Kumari storms out of her bathtub. The movie star is late for a public appearance and has decided to go as is, alarming her handler who frantically interjects, asking about her clothes, hair and makeup. She's in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, wears her hair down, and then declares herself so fair she doesn't need to care about makeup. The heroine looks like a hot mess, but played as she is by Katrina Kaif, there's the heft of honesty to the line about her complexion.

Bauaa Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) is a 38 year old dwarf living in Meerut who wants to get married ASAP. A marriage counsellor (Brijendra Kala) gets him to meet Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder (Anushka Sharma), a wheelchair-bound space scientist suffering from cerebral palsy. The two connect despite their differences and it looks like true love is blossoming between them.

Rarely has a film aroused so much curiosity as Zero. Even those who stay away from the blitzkrieg of pre-release publicity, knew that in this one, Shah Rukh Khan was playing a vertically challenged character. He does. Bauua Singh, four feet six inches, is a mini-me SRK, and that he does look so close to the ground, is a VFX triumph.

Shah Rukh Khan shrinks to conquer in Aanand L Rai's Zero, a movie that probably sounded interesting at the concept stage but ends up being irretrievably outlandish in its execution. The romantic comedy about a vertically challenged man's attempt to balance his love for a cerebral palsy-affected scientist with his adoration of a movie star ends up as an unintended circus act.

Aanand L. Rai's Zero is divided into two distinct compartments: one where the screenplay allows leading man Shah Rukh Khan's naturally energetic personality, comic timing and charm to take flight, and the second in which the film appears to be trying to say something very grave and very deep but fails to lift off. Thank the cosmos for Bollywood's dimpled wonder, his charisma and enthusiasm undiminished by his 53 years, because without him, Zero has little going for it.

Early on in Zero, we see Bauua Singh, a 38-year-old Meerut resident with an offensive sense of humour, leap onto the seat of a crusty movie theater and dance with gay abandon. He enjoys an item song. A half-naked Katrina Kaif writhes to music on screen. I think: How quaint, a metaphor detailing Shah Rukh Khan's fierce post-2010 desire to win over single-screen audiences. An analogy for his accessibility, perhaps. Further proof arrives in the form of a dance-off with Salman Khan, the ultimate single-screen messiah, at a venue that looks like a renovated MMA dungeon.

Outlandish in more ways than it can possibly orchestrate without going into frequent tailspins, Aanand L Rai's Zero, a superstar vehicle with wildly wobbly wheels, is a monumental mess. The film possesses a certain scale for sure, the visual effects create the desired illusions and an energetic Shah Rukh Khan lends the vertically challenged male lead a degree of charm and chutzpah but it is let down by a hopelessly muddled screenplay.

Bauua Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) is a vertically-challenged man from Meerut, who wears his heart on his sleeve. He falls in love with a scientist, Aafia (Anushka Sharma), who is affected by cerebral palsy. Their unlikely love story travels from India to the US and all the way to outer space too. Along the way, it meets with various interesting challenges as well.