(a reverse ranking nobody asked for, but everybody secretly needed)
Loneliness is a strange beast. It makes you miss the little things with ferocity: like hugs. Not love, not grand declarations, just the very ordinary comfort of being held.
And when you’re deprived of that, when life is heavy and shoulders feel empty, who do you turn to? For me, the only correct answer is: Shah Rukh Khan. His hugs are not hugs; they’re full-body serotonin shots. They are national monuments disguised as everyday gestures. They are GDP (Grand Desi Pyaar hahha). So, in the interest of public service aur meri khud ke fun ke liye bhi, I sat down, rewatched the canon of SRK hugs, paused, rewound, sobbed, and ranked them. Out of 10. Reverse order, because suspense matters, and drama is religion. It is a SRK-based post after all.
8. Dear Zindagi — Mentor Hug
7/10. This hug is chamomile tea in a chipped cup. It’s not dazzling, not violins swelling, not dupattas flying. But it’s soft, quiet, easy to miss if you blink, but somehow lingers after the movie ends. Kaira finally lets her guard down, SRK as Dr. Jehangir Khan leans in with the gentlest care, and for one moment, she exhales. There’s longing, gratitude, a small seed of self-acceptance. And then the ‘creak’. The kursi, louder than their hearts, steals attention. Kursi ji, nobody invited you to this hug. Yet the comfort remains. It’s the hug that says: you’ll be fine tomorrow morning, even if today hurt. Not unforgettable, but quietly necessary.
7. K3G — The Bench Hug (Hrithik + SRK)
7.5/10. Ten years of silence, longing, and anger finally collapse on a park bench. Hrithik pours his heart into the embrace, the prodigal son who has held his family together in his chest, finally finding his brother. SRK meets him with strength, yes, but also a certain detachment. His body leans in, his arms hold, but his eyes remain slightly distant as if London still lingers in his bones. Or as if things aren’t real just yet. The hug is powerful, layered, even cathartic, but not quite molten. It feels like finding your lost suitcase at the airport: relief, gratitude, but also a twinge of annoyance at why it had to go missing in the first place. Heavy with meaning, yet a little cold to the touch.
6. Jab Tak Hai Jaan — Hospital Hug
7.8/10. Gulzar’s poetry drapes across the scene like a shawl, Yash Chopra’s essence lingers in the air, and SRK hugs like a man who wants to hold back time itself. This is the epitome of fear mixed with serenity. It should have been a masterpiece. The desperation, the inevitability, the fate dangling like a sword and it’s all there. But then memory loss barges in like an uninvited extra, and the melodrama drips like over-sweet rasgullas jab pet already bhar gaya ho. It’s beautiful, yes. Heartfelt, yes. But it tries so hard to make you cry that you almost resist. A hug you remember, but don’t surrender to completely. [Also, somehow there are no images of this unfortunately.]
5. My Name Is Khan — Reconciliation Hug
8/10. No violins. No rain. No dupatta choreography. Just two broken people finally finding their way back to each other. This hug doesn’t scream. It whispers. Kajol folds into SRK like a cracked vase finally glued back together. Her arms say: “I see you again.” His body says: “I can rest now.” It’s less Bollywood, more real life. And isiliye shayad it lands so deeply. The kind of hug you give after years of exhaustion, when words don’t matter anymore, only the fact that you’re still alive and still here. Restrained, simple, cathartic. Like rain after drought and its quiet, but saving.
4. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge — Train Hug
9/10. The anthem of hugs in the anthem of movies. Simran running in slow motion, Raj’s hand stretched like destiny itself, the dupatta flying as though auditioning for Best Supporting Actress. And then, the leap. The hug. The moment an entire nation decided love is worth breaking rules for. It’s not just a hug, it’s a national monument. Kya hua agar no parent will trust Europe trips again, but this is the pop anthem of hugs, timeless, endlessly rewatched, plastered on our collective memory. 9/10, because technically nothing so good is ever realistic but in our hearts, it lives on.
3. Veer-Zaara — Dargah Hug
9.5/10. If love had a fragrance, this hug would smell of roses and dhoop. The qawwali rises, the dargah swells with prayer, and SRK and Preity cling like separating would break the universe itself. This hug is dua personified somehow. It is less touch, more surrender. Their bodies collapse into each other with the weight of centuries, as if Sufi poets were watching from the heavens, nodding in agreement. Not just tragic, not just romantic. It’s sacred. Watching it feels like holding your breath inside a temple, waiting for the aarti flame to reach your hand. Pure magic, pure devotion.
2. K3G — The Mall Hug (Jaya + SRK)
10/10. Cinema doesn’t get more archetypal than this. The violins rise to bhajan-level devotion. The air flutters as though on payroll. SRK collapses like a six-foot child into the arms of his maa, and in that moment, ten years collapse into nothing. The face touch, the slow build, the palpable thump of love. It’s everything cinema school should be taught. It’s the hug that says: you can fight your father, defy your world, marry the girl from Chandni Chowk, but maa ka pallu will always find you. Perfect. No notes. Just tissues. Sabse cute just look at those smiles, ufff.
1. Kal Ho Naa Ho — Waterside Hug
Infinity/10. This isn’t a hug. This is a national crisis hotline. This is SRK not hugging Preity but hugging all of us saying, “haan, main marne wala hoon, but for one second, let me hold you.” The rain pours, the violins slice, and suddenly, you’re sobbing with the person sitting next to you. This hug is grief embodied. Two people clinging, knowing it’s goodbye, knowing the story is already written, but refusing to let go until forced. It’s not just cinematic. It’s communal mourning. The hug that bankrupted India’s tissue supply, the hug that turned heartbreak into heritage. If hugs were monuments, this one would be the Taj Mahal except wetter, sadder, and somehow even more eternal.
💌 Curtain Call
I think I made this list not just because I love SRK, but because I miss hugs. I’ve been physically comfort-deprived for a while, and in those nights, these filmi embraces have been my serotonin bank. They reminded me of softness when all I had was hollow air. They reminded me that if Shah Rukh Khan can run across Swiss valleys, across airports, across lifetimes, just to hold someone: that maybe love, in all its messy, imperfect forms, is still possible.
So yes, this is silly. But silliness heals. SRK’s hugs have carried a nation through heartbreak, diaspora, and desi drama. They’re the reason we still believe in maa ka pallu, in train doors left ajar, in sufi shrines, in filmi rains. Ranking them was a game, but feeling them? That was gorgeous. And if you’re ever feeling a lack of comfort, like I was when I wrote this, maybe remember this: somewhere out there, even if not in your arms tonight, there’s a hug waiting with violins, rain, and Shah Rukh Khan-level intensity.
The Devil is in the Dee-tails :) 
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