Pathaan, the latest blockbuster release from the YRF does for Shah Rukh Khan, exactly what Vikram did mid last year for Kamal Hassan. It announces his grand return to the big screen with all his style and stardom. The Siddharth Anand directorial, that officially kick starts the YRF Spy Universe, wherein it finds itself sitting besides Salman Khan starrer ‘Tiger’ franchise and Hrithik Roshan’s 2019 blockbuster ‘War’. Needless to say, the nation cannot wait for storylines to proceed and merge together so that we can watch 3 of the biggest stars from the Hindi Film Industry, come together to fight their adversaries on the silver screen.

Over the weekend, I watched the film for the third time since its release. I have been a die hard Shah Rukh Khan fan since my childhood and his return to the big screen brings me a reason to celebrate not just his 32 years long career but everything that he stands for as well as everything that he will go on to do from hereon.

People from around the nation as well as the critics see the film as the resurgence of the Hindi Film Industry. Pathaan brings an ensemble cast of Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Dimple Kapadia and Ashutosh Rana as well as another superstar, Salman Khan in a cameo appearance to the screen together. The film is an out & out, bombastic, over the top, action thriller and a spectacle of sorts. It is a thoroughly entertaining proposition. Nonetheless, it is far from being flawless.

Here is a look back at the movie, the performances, what made the movie great, what could have been better, its future, the reasons for which one should watch it and not just a final remark on the cinematic experience that it is but also the cinematic universe that it kicks starts.

The Movie:

Without spoiling it for anyone that might not have watched the movie already, let me give a brief of the film’s plot.

Set in the Yash Raj Film’s Spy Verse, the film is the story of a RAW agent, Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan) who has for long been away and decides to come back to the forefront to stop a terrorist organization called “Outfit – X”, that works only on contracts without any particular purpose / moto and that threatens the country with what can be worse than a deadly nuclear attack. John Abraham portrays Jim, the head of “Outfit – X” and is after something that is code named – “Raktabeej”. In his bid to prevent the attack on the country, Pathaan teams up with an ISI agent Rubina, played by Deepika Padukone. What happens thereafter, forms a fast, sleek action entertainer that blows your mind.

Shot in India, Afghanistan, UAE, Turkey, Spain, Russia, Italy, and France, the film is definitely an visual spectacle with the views of some of the most mesmerizing locations and high octane action sequences.

The Performances:

Shah Rukh Khan as Pathaan, delivers an impeccable performance with his unique style. He carries this film on his shoulders and his performance drives the movie. He complements this Over the Top, action thriller with a more grounded performance. John Abraham is back doing what he does best and it was refreshing to see him play Jim, the bad ass cold blooded villain after a long time and he looks absolutely menacing. Deepika Padukone pulls off her action sequences with a lot of authority and looks legit as the ISI agent. The supporting act by Dimple Kapadia as Pathaan’s boss is full of grace and she with her amazing dialogs, delivers the most powerful scenes of the movie. Ashutosh Rana reprises his character of Col. Sunil Luthra from War and he succeeds in delivering a powerpacked performance.

What was great?

One mistake that I have often seen Bollywood make is that of deliberately trying to inject romance into an action / adventure movies. Remember Brahmastra and the cringe in the dialogs by all the leading characters??

The best thing about Pathaan is that it positions itself as an out & out, over the top, larger than life, action spectacle and absolutely nothing else. Despite having the biggest romantic hero in the world, playing its titular character, it just does not let the romance brew on screen. Yes, there are a few scenes wherein you feel the emotions and the drama, but that is just about it. I have firmly believed that as a film maker, your attempt at a movie should be pure and that is what Siddharth Anand and his team does well here. More than 80% of the movie features the action sequences and the spy drama that it promises to its core audiences. Only about sixth part is anything else. This stems out of the vision of Siddharth Anand as the director and the story writer, blended with a focused screenplay written by Shridhar Raghavan and the dialogs penned down by Abbas Tyrewala.

The performances by all the actors, as discussed in the earlier para, were top notch. The cinematography of the film had to be challenging and yet, Satchith Paulose does miraculous job of pulling off in style. The scenes are captured perfectly to deliver an experience to remember on the celluloid and it makes it all the more immersive an experience while watching Pathaan.

The two songs composed by the musical duo of Vishal – Shekhar are the chartbusters and there is not other way to put them across. “Besharam Rang” introduces Deepika’s character strongly amidst those plot twisting scenes and ” Jhoome Jo Pathaan” is the anthem that would see countless single screen theatres go mad while dancing. The background music by Sanchit & Ankit is amazing and only serves to strengthen the proposition the action entertainer further.

Having said all that, if there is one thing that you would want to watch this movie for, it has to be its action choreography. Getting the international action choreographers and the likes of Casey O’ Neill onboard to design its stunts; brings the movie, its grandeur, style and substance that one would watch it for.

What could have been better?

As mentioned earlier the movie is definitely not flawless. When you are making such a big film with the start studded roaster that features likes of Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Dimple Kapadia and Ashutosh Rana; you really need to make sure that VFX are absolutely top-notch and not just at par. YRF should consider all their VFX to Red Chilies VFX as they are by far and by some distance, the best VFX studio in India.

There was also a missed opportunity of linking the storyline with that of War by showing Hrithik Roshan in one of the mid-credit / post-credit scenes. Nonetheless, I do understand the fact that Siddharth Anand being the director of both Pathaan and War, would like a more organic connection between the two. And yes, just to get it off my chest, some of the action sequences are indeed Over the Top but you still believe them as they are convincing enough.

One definite miss was in the character evolution of Deepika post interval. It could have been a bit more detailed and definitely needed to be a bit more convincing than what it was.

Why is it a hit?

Pathaan through its teaser and trailer, positioned itself as an unabashed, out & out, action movie and that is what it turned out to be. The purity of attempt to make an straight out, unapologetic, sleek action thriller is pretty evident and that is one thing to love about not just Pathaan but any of the Siddharth Anand movies. Take a look back at the year gone by and you would find that movies like RRR, KGF 2, Vikram, Kantara and Sita Ramam were successful, simply because of the fact that the effort gone into making these movies was very pure. All of these movies and their storytelling remain honest to their theme, style and genre. That is exactly what Pathaan also does. It is a masala action thriller that would give its audiences 2 hours and 46 minutes of absolute fun, entertainment, thrill and mad cheers.

Compare that to Brahmastra from last year. For the 65%-70% of the movie that was an adventurous mystery, it was fun to watch. But the balance 30% -35% was absolutely cringe wherein romance was inorganically injected and was a force fit. Thankfully, Pathaan refrains from making these mistakes and good 80% of the movie is what audience thought it would be which is a sleek, stylish and powerful action entertainer.

What works for Pathaan is showing Shah Rukh Khan as a spy that is a resourceful, super soldier but not without his weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Despite all the over the top action sequences in the movie, the character Pathaan as portrayed by SRK feels more real than both Tiger and Kabir, the other two lead characters and alpha males of the spy universe.

On the other hand, Jim as the menacing villain is an out & out bad guy who wears his flaws on his chest. This texture of John’s character combined with SRK’s portrayal of Pathaan makes for a perfect pot boiler and through out the film you are rooting for the hero that seems like an underdog. And it is that fun of witnessing an underdog’s victory, that leaves the audiences thrilled.

The future of the Spy Universe

Imagine seeing three of the top stars playing super spies, featuring in the same movie and going head to head with equally big stars playing the bad ass villains. YRF is the biggest production house in the country and it now has 3 IPs around which it is going to weave a universe full of thrill and action that has never been seen before.

So what does the future in and of this universe hold for us and what can be expected of it? Salman Khan’s appearance in Pathaan was small bridge that links the movie with the Tiger franchise and it would be fun to see SRK in Tiger 3. A direct, deeper connect between Pathaan and War exists in form of Col. Luthra’s character played by Ashutosh Rana. Now imagine Hrithik, SRK, Salman in the same frame and add to the same frame Deepika and Katrina. Ensemble enough?

But such cinematic experience have to have a lot more than just an ensemble cast. The plot has to be robust enough. The movies’ screenplays have to be crisp & tight and yet, engaging enough. The characters need to be given their time to develop, evolve and mature. It is equally important to both tease the audiences with just enough of the short screentime featuring various cameos in the various movies and to do justice with each of the characters and their depth. Given the fact that from now on, films across all three franchises will be written with the entire spy universe in mind; we can expect tightly coupled screenplays, characters & storylines. All of this put together, promises us all, as movie goers, a great time and amazing experience ahead.

Why you should watch it?

There are many reasons to watch Pathaan, none greater than the return of the King to his throne. Shah Rukh Khan is back and how. You want to watch you beloved actor and the top star in the country come back in full force and absolutely smash the silver screen, you just have to watch Pathaan. You want to see a bad ass villain that seems invincible and yet is taken down by a vulnerable hero, you have to watch Pathaan. You want to see Indian Cinema touch the same level of action as their Hollywood cousins, you have to watch Pathaan. You want to have a great time watching movie with friends and family, you have to watch Pathaan.

Finally, if you want to see the magic of Hindi Cinema back in the theaters with audiences rooting for the hero, whistling, clapping, cheering and dancing like crazy in the theaters to celebrate the return of not just their favorite star but the return of exciting, pot-boiling and star studded, mass Hindi Cinema that leaves you grooving to the beats of its songs, you have to watch Pathaan.

Closing Remarks:

Pathaan as it stands on its day 16, has already shattered all the records for a Hindi movie’s net collection on Indian Box Office. But the biggest achievement of Pathaan is not the fact that it is a smashing return of Shah Rukh Khan to the big screen after a hiatus of 4 years. It is not in the fact that it is currently the seventh highest grossing Indian movie of all time and fourth highest Hindi movie of all time. It is also not in the fact that it has kick started our own Spy Universe. It does not even lie in the fact that this move has made the massy Hindi Cinema come back to the theatres in style.

The biggest feat that Pathaan has achieved is to revive 25 single screen theatres which directly, indirectly create nearly a thousand of jobs in the small cities of India that directly impact the lives of nearly around 5000 people. Movies will come and go. There will be better cinematic experience, greater spectacles and films with much bigger mass following and higher box office gross. Yet, the most important thing to acknowledge about Pathaan is that it has indeed, done a lot more than just being another out & out, masala commercial entertainer. It has brought millions back to the single screen to celebrate cinema and a thousand of theatre staff back to their jobs so that they can help the audiences celebrate harder with clean theatres, proper sitting, delicious refreshments and some beverages.

Note: This blog article has been written as a hobby / interest, intended for absolutely no commercial use.