Pathaan is not just a movie, it's a statement to haters and war cry that Bollywood is back!

Firstly, this is not a critical review of the film Pathaan. These are just my thoughts after watching the movie, which happens to be my first movie in a theatre after the Covid 19 pandemic broke out. 

The reception of the Pathaan movie is next level. Some are saying that the ‘King is Back’ and others are also highly positive about the collection of the movie. 

The movie earns a whopping amount of Rs 54 Cr on day one. Having a public holiday to celebrate Republic day, day 2 of the Pathaan release, was also a blockbuster. Unlike the usual Bollywood release pattern, the film was released on Wednesday, 25 January 2023 and is said to be the blessing that Bollywood needed amidst this draught of big hits. 

However, numbers don’t justify what this movie signifies. Apart of being a movie, Pathaan is also:

A Statement to all those hate mongers who had threatened to not allow the release and show of the movie in the country. Many might just say that this has become a new technique to market a film, however, credit is due to the makers of film who didn’t budge to the social media trolls. It was also a statement to all those saying ‘Sanskriti khatre mei hai’ on Deepika Padukone’s saffron bikini, as the makers stood tall and decided not to cut that scene from the movie. It was also a statement to all those who were even afraid to put the poster of the movie at the theatres. And moreover, it was a slap to the face of all Shah Rukh Khan haters. SRK just silently let his work speak and answered all those who have questioned his stature as the superstar of Indian Cinema. It was Shah Rukh’s calling especially what he and his family has been through in the last couple of years. The box office numbers just showed that poster or no poster, hate doesn’t have a long shelf life. 

Bollywood is back: The lull that the Hindi Cinema industry has been experiencing in the last two years, just needed its superstar to help in revival. And boy does SRK deliver. As an observer of the film industry I have seen that big releases in the last two years failed to garner this kind of attention. Pathaan ticks some very basic boxes right and this works in the movie’s favour. It was always portrayed to be an action entertainer and it delivers as being one. The production, the locales, the cinematography all do justice to what the film intended to be. The dialogues were pure Bollywood masala and this worked well. The patriotic fervour of the movie, wrapped in the background of Article 370 abolition, was the ploy that delivered perfectly. 

A sneak peek to Bollywood’s Cinematic Universe: Another thing that stood out for me was the coming together of two of the biggest superstars of Indian cinema: Shah Rukh and Salman. It was a brilliant sneak peak to YRF’s spy universe and the franchises that are in the anvil. There will soon be a movie where we will see both Tiger and Pathaan together at the rescue of Bharat Mata. There was also a mention of Kabir (Hrithik Roshan in the movie War), another YRF spy character that might just make an appearance, following the proven track of cinematic universes, like Rohit Shetty’s cop universe comprising Singham, Sooryavanshi and Simmba. The two major Bollywood universes : Shetty’s cop universe and YRF’s spy universe provide an excellent business opportunity as the franchises do plan to expand beyond movies to animations, video games, merchandise etc. This is the extension that Bollywood was looking for to take it beyond the realms of box office numbers. 

These were my initial thoughts after watching Pathaan. The movie does the right thing right: it thoroughly entertains you, and that’s what movies are supposed to do. All the cacophony around any movie release is just useless and in my opinion it takes away the pure charm of watching and enjoying a movie.