Pathaan (2023)
Review of Pathaan (2023)
When I was up in New York City one weekend, my dear friend Sarah wanted to meet with me and grab a quick meal, then see a movie. I’d seen Bollywood movies, and had even taken a class in them when I was an undergraduate student, but I had never actually seen a Bollywood movie in a theater.
That is the story as to how we ended up going to see Pathaan on a random Sunday afternoon in the AMC located inside of Times Square. I’ve been weary of that Times Square because of the rumor that it’s had bed bugs, but because I have AMC A List, it was one of the only options to go to.
It was also my first Deepika Padukone movie, too! I’ve seen some Shah Rukh Khan movies before, but never Deepika’s. There’s definitely a first for everything. Anyways, I didn’t end up liking this movie too much.
Thought it was heavy handed in the nationalistic propaganda elements, and while it was fun, I thought SRK looked way older than Deepika to continue that romantic love line. It may have worked in Om Shanti Om, but now he just looks too old for me.
Onwards with the review!
Indian special agent Pathaan must go on the adventure of his lifetime to save India from bioterrorism.
Shah Rukh Khan is Pathaan in this action-filled movie, and, at the beginning of the film, he has been called back to work with the Indian government after retiring.
The premise for this is the fact that the Indian government has recalled Article 370, which revoked Kashmir’s special status, and a group called Outfit X is planning to attack the President of India while at a science conference abroad. Behind the scenes, a vengeful Pakistani general has decided to hire a guy named Jim, who leads Outfit X, to get revenge for the fact Article 370 was revoked.
So Pathaan and his crew move on to Dubai, but soon realize that X’s actual target are the scientists from India. Jim swoops in to kidnap the scientists, sparking a fight between the RAW Indian agents.
Some end up dead, and while Pathaan manages to rescue one of the scientists, he ends up losing the other. We learn the backstory for Jim (yet not why he has the name Jim, of all things), and realize that he never got over the fact his pregnant wife was murdered by his beloved Mother India due to their inaction.
Pathaan then finds a lead in Spain because of tracing a Pakistani doctor (Padukone), thus leading to the only main musical scene in the movie. She’s quite the vixen and leads him down a rabbit hole straight to Jim, but then decides she wants to join forces with Pathaan.
The two plan a heist in Moscow, which is equally dumb and epic, especially after it’s implied they have sexy time in their shared hotel room, then she ends up betraying him. He is arrested and put in a Russian jail, but with the help of his fellow comrades he escapes.
The final arc of the movie comes with the realization that Jim and the General are planning on dropping a biomedical weapon on India’s biggest cities. Pathaan rejoins forces with the Pakistani doctor, who atones for her sins, and they steal one of the orbs containing the virus.
But, as it is brought back to India, when it is opened it spreads the virus to everyone in the lab. Cue one emotional moment as Pathaan’s mentor slash coworker slash boss who believed in him this entire time dies and gives a great speech about Mother India. The doctors and everyone infected then shoot themselves and the lab is set to be destroyed.
Thus begins a race against time because Jim and the General have missiles full of the virus, and no one knows where they’re shooting them.
Pathaan and the crew find out, thus sparking a battle scene, and Jim and Pathaan have one final stand off as, expectedly, everything turns out happy and dandy in the end. If this summary sounds like a wild trip, it’s because it is. I found myself scratching my head at some of these twists because they just didn’t make sense sometimes.
It’s like they tried to cram as much as they could into this movie while keeping the run time somewhat under three hours.
There’s elements of classic Bollywood in this, such as the scene where Shah Rukh Khan’s long hair—which I thought looked terrible, by the way—was just blowing in the wind. There’s one music moment in the main narrative, and then another during the credits scene.
All in all, I thought Pathaan works well as a propaganda piece. I was telling people after that a fun game for this one was to take a shot every time they say Mother India or something along the lines of for my country, and I think someone could end up drunk by the end.
Overall Thoughts
It is a fun movie, but did I enjoy it a ton? Not really. It wasn’t my cup of tea, and, at the end of the day, the nationalistic elements of the movie made me slightly uncomfortable because of how it fits into the more sinister tropes of Bollywood movies.
The acting was great, that was for sure, and they did not skimp on the production value at all. Pacing works well because of the constant shifts in the plot and new discoveries, but that doesn’t excuse the fact the movie has a lot of holes to begin with.
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