Pathaan has SRK at his action best – flaunting his swagger and wearing machismo like second skin!
Film: Pathaan
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, Dimple Kapadia, Ashutosh Rana
Director: Siddharth Anand
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pathaan was easily one of the most-awaited and highly-anticipated movies coming out of Bollywood this year for multiple reasons. The biggest reason being that the film marks the re-entry of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh back on screen after four years (Let’s not call Brahamastra his film really!) The second reason: Cinema-goers as well as the industry was simply waiting to enjoy and celebrate a ‘Bollywood’ blockbuster of a grand scale in theatres that was unanimously a mass entertainer and not divided in pseudo-intellect opinions! Third: There was much riding on all the three stars to deliver a blockbuster hit that would set the cash registers ringing at the BO. And no surprises here that their Pathaan does just that. It IS a treat for SRK fans!
The trailers promised us a highly-stylised and slick action extravaganza. SRK does honour this promise and Pathaan is all of the above and more! It has SRK in his action best avatar – flaunting his swagger, delivering flawless kicks, landing the right punches and wearing machismo like second skin apart from the patriotism of course! His bronzed 6-pack abs along with those unkempt locks only amp up that magnetism and his charismatic screen allure.
Deepika is scorching hot and her convincingly exciting action sequences (even if reminiscent of Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow or Angelina Jolie) make you want to see her as the next Lara Croft. Although the movie isn’t completely devoid of sexism – read Hero coming in to save the day on many counts – we can’t forget that the film is named Pathaan and not Rubai! John Abraham flexing his perfect ab-bod is not new, but as Jim – the nemesis of our hero – he scores brownie points for raising the hotness quotient on the baddie-o-meter! What’s more, we do like that he actually makes it challenging – staying steps ahead of his arch rival and managing to outwit him in a large chunk of the movie.
The movie wastes no time in diving straight into the action and keeps up the fast pace for most part. While the dialogues are clearly aimed at being massy and nothing to write home about, the stunt and action sequences make the movie an adrenaline-spiked ride! The story has a justifiable plot, but just enough, as is the case with most spy thrillers and the film leans heavily on the action and the three stars pull it off with an effortless appeal!
Don’t try to keep a track of the locations where Pathaan’s chases take you (we did give it up mid-way) but don’t blink during those chase and action sequences of which there are plenty! There’s combat on land, train, choppers, in air, in water, in snow, on ice and a rather special super-starry cameo too! This one’s straight for the seeti-maar audience and the stars are in their best forms yet! Dimple Kapadia deserves a special mention and she owns the screen each time with her presence. If James Bond has M, our Pathaan has N – Nandini!
The influences heavily drawn from James Bond and Mission Impossible series for the action plots are too obvious to be missed. But as an action entertainer, Pathaan delivers. The movie can seamlessly blend into the spy multiverse – with Tiger and War – that YRF head honcho Aditya Chopra has envisioned and clearly he’s making sure that Bollywood gets its ‘heroes’ back! We aren’t complaining, so bring it on!