Pathaan Review: Not The Ideal SRK Comeback
Rating: 2.5/5
After 4+ years, SRK has finally returned to the screens in a dramebaaz, no restraints entertainer in the form of Pathaan. Starting Deepika Padukone and John Abraham as well, the movie releases this Republic Day. Let’s see how it is.
Plot:
Jim (John Abraham), a former Indian soldier, plans a huge attack on India of some sort as revenge for his personal battles. While RAW is making their plans, one of their topmost soldiers who has gone in hiding, Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan), comes back to the scene to try and hunt Jim for a past which involves Rubina Mohsin (Deepika Padukone). What follows next keeps the story going.
Performances:
First things first, its really, really nice to see Shah Rukh Khan back on screen. The Bollywood Badshah is singlehandedly the reason why this movie remains bearable in many portions; his swagger and dialogue-baazi practically sets the screen on fire, while he performs the action with ease. Its been 4 years, King, 4 years too long; can’t wait to see him in 2 more movies this year. John Abraham springs a huge surprise and has a lot of weight as the villain, a significant improvement from the one in War. His screen presence and intensity gives a worthy antagonist and definitely heightens the stakes regularly. A true reminder how well he shines in negative roles. Deepika Padukone is on fire and has a ball of a time in a role she makes her own. Despite some really bad writing for her character, its also nice to see her in this femme fatale type role. Ashutosh Rana is good, while Dimple Kapadia suits the bill. The cameo in this movie- and theres a big one- is undoubtedly the pinnacle and sets the scene on such a high arc.
Writing/Direction:
Siddharth Anand’s career, barring his debut in Salaam Namaste, is a career that goes to the same 3 blocks every single time he runs into some sort of situation that demands creativity. It’s a career where the writing just doesn’t have any different to it or the execution doesn’t present anything new to the table; it gives a feel of the same plot 100 times. Pathaan is no different; rather, its worse because of all the cliches ridden into the tale, particularly in the second half. The core story itself seems convoluted but routine at the same time. In an effort to bring an out of order style narration, Anand mixes up the timelines very heavily in the story and leaves no clarity over the actual plot. It remains ok when he’s setting up the events and narrating what leads to the present day. When the plot hits, however, its underwhelming and set throughout with cheesy plot points, sappy turns, and twists that can be seen a mile away. Deepika’s character is an example of this as Anand ruins her with the same old writing. Pathaan makes no use of subtlety when it has to bring out subtle emotions; showing a death with dragged out dialogues and actions ruins the impact. Worse, the writing just keeps circulating around the same things and is perched upon a thin storyline. There are a few things Anand gets right with his writing. John Abraham and SRK have developed characters, although Abraham has much more basis for it and better writing. The movie itself follows the plot without much comedic lag and establishes some of its events quickly, resulting in the movie moving along at a relatively well pace. The references to King Khan’s career and the YRF Spy Universe are there. But still, the overall writing effort is not just there. Leave predictable, but every single time an event needs to be furthered, the movie turns to a different cliche or a different archetype that is executed the same way as all of his previous movies. This results in an experience that isn’t even entertaining at the end, but rather goes through the motions heavily.
Anand’s screenplay is jumbled, but slightly better solely due to the fact that he keeps the movie somewhat going throughout and never bogs it down. The screenplay starts off decent, with the action and the events giving somewhat of a get to the plot and build up impact that an action movie needs. But when Anand begins to cut between many flashbacks and makes it explicit, he jumbles the screenplay and leaves a sort of nonlinear screenplay that isn’t purposefully out of order but messily cut from one to another, resulting in few continuity in events that doesn’t establish a flow. Anand’s USP is that the screenplay doesn’t give the viewers too much time to dwell; with somewhat of a initial pace, it keeps the events going at a pace that despite the jumble leave the movie entertaining. The screen presence of the actors help a bit here to enhance the feel. However, this goes awry in the second half where the screenplay falls into a series of cliches that are too deep. What’s more is that there isn’t the proper elaboration nor the threads that are closed up properly from the writing, so the screenplay moving that quickly doesn’t do the movie any favors in the second half where the events need elaboration. Anand’s direction and narration starts off decent and high octane, but soon shifts to the mundane category, especially in the latter half. He doesn’t have the writing to back it up either, but once the references and the cameos and the initial intrigue around the story dies down, it just labors along.
The first half of the movie is decent to good, largely attributed to the fact of the intrigue with the plot, the performances, and the entertainment brought forward by a quick setup. After quickly getting into the main events of the story, the proceedings shift to SRK’s intro fight which is very well done and constructed with enough masala to entertain the viewers. The movie then shifts to flashbacks, hastily cut amidst many but done decently. As the movie moves on and hits towards the main plot and the events of the story, the next action scene comes which suffers from very poor CGI, but more importantly we get a look into John Abraham’s character. Throughout the first half, the name of the game is setup, and Anand does that relatively well without bogging down anything. Padukone’s entry helps this further, as her dynamic with SRK keeps the movie entertaining with comedy laced in and some romantic elements. The song Besharam Rang looks good on screen, and the movie progresses quickly to the pre interval which is decently done and has some action, but the interval bang comes practically out of the middle of nowhere and serves to end the first half on a rough note. Nevertheless, the first half gives a decent entertainer that sets the stakes somewhat high, but eventually all that is undone by the second half riddled with cliches from frame one, jingoism, and cheesy emotions in the place of some subtlety or entertainment.
Technicalities:
Vishal-Shekar’s music looks good on the big screen, and Sanchit and Ankit Balhara’s BGM is good in some crucial scenes and lacking in some others. Cinematography by Satchith Paulose is very good overall, with some color schemes and visuals looking on point, but there is a sense of artificiality and some scenes going out of focus. Editing is satisfactory barring a few rough cuts. Dialogues are cheesy and sappy, exaggerating the movie to the next level. Action is decent for the most part, with two really good fights. CGI and VFX is terrible; its part of the reason some of the action just doesnt show. Production values are on point.
Overall Verdict/TLDR:
Look, its always nice to see King Khan on the screen. He brings this aura to his movies that often no one else brings, and Pathaan is no exception. He and his costars have lifted Anand’s below average product to somewhat entertaining, but Anand’s lazy and messy writing and direction have left it deep down a hole. Positives are Shah Rukh Khan’s screen presence, John Abraham and his characterization, Deepika Padukone glamour, fast paced screenplay in first half, train fight screen (with the cameo) and intro fight, production values, YRF Spy Universe references, and some parts of BGM and cinematography. On the flipside, haphazard and cliche screenplay, routine plot point with no originality or style, terrible CGI throughout, poor second half, Deepika’s characterization overall, cheesy dialogues and emotions, and lack of gripping narration in the second half. Pathaan promised a lot of shor, but fizzled with minimal impact. Watch for SRK, but for a good action movie wait for Jawaan.
Commercial Viability: Oh its going to do numbers. Despite my inhibitions with the movie, I know that the movie has a lot going for it and the talk is positive. With Republic Day, SRK hype, the accessibility of the genre, the cameo, and the hype around the movie in general, its going to succeed. The general crave for a good action movie amongst Bollywood audiences is also a positive for it in the long run. I’m expecting a MAJOR SUCCESS despite the quality of the movie.
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