SRK’s Pathaan Is Out And Here’s What Audiences Are Saying About It

Unless one has been living under a rock, one knows that Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback film Pathaan has been making waves for some good and some bad reasons.

The movie is supposed to be the way of out the doldrums for the much-beleaguered Hindi film industry. It has also attracted some very vociferous protests and boycott calls online and resulted in real-world vandalism. So what’s the brouhaha about? Is Pathaan worth your while and your money? Check out the trailer and what the reviews say:

 Pathaan Official Trailer

The movie is a part of the YRF Spy Universe which earlier gave us Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, War and now Pathaan. The movie stars Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham and is directed by Siddharth Anand. The movie also features Dimple Kapadia, Ashutosh Rana, and a cameo from ‘Tiger’ Salman Khan. The trailer suggests lots of high octane action, exotic locales, glamorous people…all that one would expect from a spy thriller.

Big opening with the thrill of the movie theatre

Bachpan mein saari filmein single screens par hi dekhi hain. Uska apna hi maza hai. Duas, Prathna aur Prayers karta hoon…aap sabko aur mujhe kaamyaabi mile. Congratulations on your re-openings. pic.twitter.com/LuF2TsCjvh

— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) January 24, 2023

According to industry watchers, the advance booking of the film has been tremendous, with over 50% occupancy even in the morning shows on day one. The film releases in over 100 countries, the highest for any Indian film, and in 2500 screens. Khan tweeted this list of single screen that reopen after a long time with his film.

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“@iamsrk means love and you cannot boycott love”, a fan said this morning, while responding to the calls for boycott of the film.

But the #Pathaan release hopefully is bringing back people to the theatres and that is hugely important for business for the Hindi film industry. pic.twitter.com/Lc9zztbCD0

— Saurabh Gupta(Micky) (@MickyGupta84) January 25, 2023

It isn’t just the fact that SRK fans are over the moon about this release, people are just happy to be back in theatres, enjoying the collective experience of movie viewing. However, there have been reports of vandalism where protestors have torn down posters and threatened to burn down theatres in many places across India.

Good start

#Pathaan releasing to HUGE numbers – making the boycott-gang as well as 'Hindi films are dead' journos to invest in inhalers, two desi docus (both on compassion & humanity of the folks regularly oppressed by this regime) making it to Oscars – the year's started on a decent note. pic.twitter.com/iBwNsjLDbE

— वरुण 🇮🇳 (@varungrover) January 25, 2023

As standup comic, writer and social commentator Varun Grover points out, the film opening doesn’t seem to be impacted by the #BoycottBollywood calls. He also points out that two Indian documentary films made it to Oscar nominations; calling it a positive start to the year, cinematically speaking.

 “Blockbuster”

#OneWordReview…#Pathaan: BLOCKBUSTER.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½#Pathaan has it all: Star power, style, scale, songs, soul, substance and surprises… And, most importantly, #SRK, who’s back with a vengeance… Will be the first #Blockbuster of 2023. #PathaanReview pic.twitter.com/Xci1SN72hz

— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) January 25, 2023

I would take Taran Adarsh’s words with more than a pinch of salt, since he has showed himself to be more easily impressed by star power than quality content. So if it’s stars, style, spills and thrills one desires, this one apparently has it in spades. SRK is an ex-army undercover agent, Padukone plays a Pak ISI agent, and Abraham is an ex-RAW rogue agent. They are seen to hop across continents looking great as they go about their spying or whatever it is that they do.

This instant review

#pathaan quick #movie review ! #PathaanReview pic.twitter.com/iaqKmGzEoX

— Stutee Ghosh (@rjstutee) January 25, 2023

As the reviews keep coming in, we get the feeling that this is a film without too many pretensions. It has the slo-mo entries, the cheeky, witty lines. it is a film that doesn’t seem to take itself very seriously according to this review.

The craze

https://twitter.com/saavan1811/status/1618176172202033153

There have been reports of crazed fans and videos of scenes like these at screens being shared on social media; the screams and the claps at the point where the superstar enters the frame.

Bad reviews as well

https://twitter.com/YourMasalu/status/1618084732109213696

This guy is clearly not a fan and feels that SRK as the romantic hero is well past his sell-by date. In some places the theatre attendances are also low.

TOI’s Pathaan review

Image source

The Times review calls it massy, messy outlandish – all that one would expect from a proper masala potboiler. Apparently this is one that lives up to the hype and plays to the gallery – so we could expect seeti-maar, paisa-vasool fare at the theatre.

Express review

Image source

Giving the movie three stars, this review tells us that it can all be a little over the top but an enjoyable romp. Seems to me that if one wants simply to be entertained, without having to involve much grey matter in the process, Pathaan may be a good option. I am now curious enough to head to the theater myself and divest myself of some of my hard-earned money to watch Pathaan this weekend…though I am not an SRK fan.

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