You know how much the world loves Shah Rukh Khan and Pakistan is no different. Not only does Pakistan love Shah Rukh Khan, Pakistan adores him. It adores all the Khans. Saif, Aamir, Salman, heck I even know Imran Khan (the non cricketer, Bolly Imran) fans in Pakistan. That’s how much of an influence Bollywood has on Pakistani society. And we’re quite chill with it, we’ve all grown up on Kishore and Rafi’s melodies and I’ve written extensively about it here once upon a time and if you know me, even a little bit, you must have heard the story of How I Met Shah Rukh Khan and I’m still gushing about it, five years later.
But I guess — that’s just us. Large-hearted, loving, besotted Pakistanis who have an unflinching love affair with Bollywood. With Pathaan, I’m not sure how long the love affair will continue but hey, Shah Rukh Khan’s flying locks may help it last a tiny bit longer.
Pathaan’s story is very typical action-hero, big-shot, big-budget song-and-dance fest that has all the flavors of Bollywood and Bollywood’s badshah himself, Shah Rukh Khan. The eponymous Pathaan is a broken but strong cop? Soldier? RAW Agent? Can’t be a RAW Agent because RAW doesn’t hire Muslims? So what exactly is Pathaan? We’ll never know. Anyway. You get the gist. Shah Rukh Khan is a Pathaan soldier because he (spoiler) was on a mission in Afghanistan (doing what exactly?).
In said mission, Pathaan was adopted by an Afghan family (cue taweez-wielding matron who speaks like she’s from Karachi). You can wipe those incredulous expressions on your faces because this happens in the ‘Spy Universe’ created by the Chopras.
Pathaan believes that the ‘broken’ soldiers in India can come together to form a stronger unit. Helmed by a very efficient Dimple Kapadia and a disgruntled Col Luthra (Ashutosh Rana), Pathaan’s mission now is to find Jim (Jon Abraham) an ex-RAW Agent whose pregnant wife was killed by terrorists (?) in front of him (sounds like cough something that happens cough where there are a lot of soldiers per citizens cough) who has teamed up with other disgrunted agents.
And that’s where our honey-trap slash love interest slash conscientious neighbor slash bikini song starrer Deepika Padukone comes in.
Oh, she’s also an ISI agent. Who teams up with Jim/Jon. Then with Khan/Pathaan. Then shows off the world how beautiful and athletic her body is because what’s a spy film without making women feel like they’re never going to have long enough legs to snog Shah Rukh Khan.
But I digress.
There are plenty of twists and turns in the film, it’s not boring by any stretch, the action is as taut as SRK’s six pack. Jon’s chemistry with Shah Rukh is commendable, the film packs a punch throughout. And the Bhai cameo is laden with Karan Arjun/private camaraderie references that will make you smile if you have, like me, grown up on Bollywood fodder.
The songs are sparse, which is a blessing. Any more moony shots in the feature would have killed the show and the pace. Beysharam Rang has Deepika doing her strange gymnastics and Jhoome Jo Pathaan is a perfect film-ender. The CGI and action choreography are by far one of the best you may have ever seen come out of Bollywood.
The politics are no improvement though, even if it’s not as ridiculous as Mission Majnu (I mean that was just laughable). It tries to appease everyone, showing Deepika as a ‘good’ ISI agent helping RAW (lol) but the villain is a Pakistani general (yawn).
Deepika’s character has some good lines thrown in for balance, for which, I am truly thankful to Shah Rukh Khan. But the one point that seemed excessive and hit a nerve was Kashmir.
Apparently, Jon Abraham’s character threatens to wipe out India with a missile if troops don’t retreat from Kashmir. While I understand the film is a view of the Indian majority population and Shah Rukh Khan is as patriotic an Indian as he gets. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I do wish he had stayed away from this particular instance.
The conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has been a sore point, and after the abrogation of Article 370 by the BJP government, the comment on Kashmir has become a more far-right one from India than it ever was. But perhaps this is the price one has to pay for being a patriotic minority? You have to save some, win some, lose some, struggle with some more.
As far as the film itself goes, when it comes to the action and the overall execution, it’s a good film and paisa vasool and will be vasool with interest for the patriotic Indian. For a Pakistani fan, it was a confusing experience. To watch your country’s politics play second fiddle in a film by a man who may be of your community (somewhat) but is selling a watered-down version of a Kool-Aid that India’s action films tend to rely on.
You can watch my ‘rant’ here:
