Pathaan Experience Archives - Lokmarg

‘Pathaan Proves That Love Presides Over Toxicity’

By LokMarg 25th February 2023

Yuvraj Dixit, a teenage movie buff and a diehard Shahrukh fan from Lucknow, says Pathaan has humiliated the hatemongers and proved that audiences have an opinion of their own. In his words:

Pathaan’s success has once again proved that content is king. Nevertheless, the movie’s cast, led by King Khan, has also brought a breath of fresh air from Bollywood. Add to this, the joy of watching a movie in big screen, and you have the perfect recipe for a blockbuster. After a very long, one got to see the audience jumping with joy, whistling, shouting, and dancing out their heart.

The experience to watch Pathaan was like a collective celebration of life. More so as things were lying breathless ever since the Covid lockdown hit the country. Though many films were released in the past couple of years but they failed to pull and hold the viewer. Although there have been many films with good content and story streamed on OTT, the fun and satisfaction to watch a movie with the crowd is unmatchable.

Pathaan is the new world of Shahrukh and we are living it to the fullest. Amidst the `record tod’ performance, it has once again been proved that haters are going to hate but it is love that will always preside. King Khan said it in as many words.

ALSO READ: Pathaan Brings Back Old World Charm Of Cinema

The boycott gang was yet again on its toes and made all efforts to ruin our `piece’ of joy and celebration but, like many occasions, all the hues and cries fell flat on the face. The illogical `bhagwa’ protest stands humiliated today. The campaign such `ISI-funded film’, `disrespect to our security agencies’ (John Abraham is a former RAW agent in the film), etc., failed to mislead the viewers and the audience gave its reply louder than words.

***Dixit relives his experience of watching Pathaan in cinema hall***

I also have a piece of advice not only for Shahrukh but for everyone in the film industry. We all know the power of social media and the population of `WhatsApp graduates’, so every caution should be taken so as to not leave even a single `loophole’ or a situation that could prove to be an easy catch for `bluffers’.

It’s not that that a bhagwa clothing appeared only in Pathaan – I can provide a list of links with even more vulgar sequences where actors in saffron robes were enjoying pelvic thrusts with bawdy lyrics. The less said about our Internet intellectuals the better! Some people will always spread mindless sensitivity and toxicity.

The viewers have also given a fair example of their intelligence and the real movie lover is not moved or affected by such calls and campaigns. After all, so much money and time are involved in giving us something to cherish and spend quality time and we also need to give the respect and return our entertainers deserve.

‘Pathaan Has Injected a Fresh Lease of Life Into Bollywood’

By LokMarg 31st January 2023

Priyanka Gupta, a socialite and social worker from Lucknow, says the Shahrukh Khan-starrer ticks all the boxes to qualify as a super-duper entertainer

I am very choosy about the movies to be watched in a theatre. Therefore, before buying tickets for Pathaan, I checked its reviews in the media, sought responses of my friends and the occupancy in the cinema halls before placing my buck on it. I am happy to say that the ticket-money was well spent; the film just blew my mind.

Though I am not a die-hard fan of Shahrukh Khan, from the terrific response of the audience in the cinema halls, I can tell you that the Hindi audience was long waiting for an entertainer like Pathaan. This SRK-entertainer has lived up to the expectations and the hype created before the release. Be it the star power, action sequences, choreography, twist & turns, or the high pitch of Rashtravad (nationalism), the movie ticks all the boxes to qualify as a paisa-wasool blockbuster.

The movie’s never-before kind of success came as a big relief for the cinema hall owners, who had been reeling under financial hardships since Covid times. Even after the theatres had reopened, most of the movies were run of the mill and could not book adequate profit. Not just theatre owners, it has also brought much-needed succour for the struggling Bollywood. Many critics had begun to write off Bollywood studios in favour of the South Indian cinema.

Looking into the gloom that prevailed for the past couple of years, Pathaan comes as a breath of fresh air. I think the negative campaign by various outfits against Shahrukh Khan may have also worked in its favour. The audience is not a fool. If the movie gives us the bang for our buck, we shall watch it. I am glad that wisdom prevailed over negativity. All those Boycott Bollywood, saffron bikini, body-shaming messages finally fell flat on their face.

***Gupta (left) calls Pathaan a complete entertainer***

Deepika Padukone is not the only star who has worn a bhagwa color outfit in a song. I can count any number of songs on fingertips where heroines had put on clothes of similar colour in far more ‘outrageous’ settings with bawdy lyrics. But Team Shahrukh has to face bigger scrutiny for reasons that I would not like to discuss or elaborate here.

ALSO READ: ‘Pathaan Brings Old World Revelry To Theatres’

The story line is entertaining, so is the background music, action sequences (however unbelievable) and a fast pace. Watching it on a large screen was an engrossing experience. I particularly found the Salman Khan’s cameo as one of the movie’s finest moments; Sallu’s entry set the audience on fire. But overall, it was a collective fare. Shahrukh Khan, Deepika, John Abraham, along with other co-stars, delivered a complete massala hit that Bollywood is known for.

The bottom line is audience will decide for themselves which movie to watch and which movie to abandon. Those who are trying to set an agenda in the field of entertainment will not succeed. To quote a cinematic line for the occasion, Indian audience only wants three things from a movie: Entertainment, entertainment and… entertainment.

As told to Rajat Rai

‘Pathaan Brings Back Old World Fans Revelry To Movie Theatres’

By LokMarg 29th January 2023

Rituparna Sengupta, who teaches and writes on literature & popular culture, says the movie is a cracking response to the vitriolic trolling SRK has faced lately

I went to watch Pathaan after coming across media reports and social-media videos of over-the-top audience reactions to the film. As a cinema buff and a student of popular culture, I was curious about the movie, especially since the last time a Bollywood film elicited such a charged reaction within the theatre was last year, with The Kashmir Files, though it belongs to a different genre. I was also intrigued by the discourse around Pathaan, dubbed as the triumphant return of not only ‘King Khan’ but also of the single-screen-theatre-like film-viewing experience, with the audience clapping, rooting and whistling in pure joy.

I went for a morning show and found that, indeed, there was this current of jubilance in the audience. Many were taking photos and videos of the film’s scenes, not for pirating it, but just to record memories of watching it on the big screen. The atmosphere was electric.

People came to watch Pathaan for varied reasons—ranging from SRK fandom, to showing solidarity against the vitriolic propaganda against the actor and his family, to the timing of the film’s release (Republic Day). But what interests me is the film’s symbolic value, at multiple levels.

The espionage thriller is a masculine, testosterone-driven drama with loud and flashy stunts, exotic locations, femme fatales, etc. For a romantic hero like SRK—massively popular among female fans—to play such a protagonist, is a gamble. However, instead of ‘hardening’ Shah Rukh Khan to meet the demands of the genre, the film allows SRK to bend the genre to suit his strengths–something that pays off well.

***Sengupta (left) says ‘Pathaan’ has trademark romantic SRK at work***

For instance, instead of the brash arrogance of the spy hero, here we have a charming character who wears himself lightly and is comfortable not being in the centre of the frame always. We see trademark SRK at work here–husky whispers, eyes-teasing and passionate by-turns, unafraid to Be vulnerable, joking and pretending to be more inept than he is. The way the Pathaan romances with Rubai (Deepika Padukone) is in his characteristic too-near-but-no-further titillating fashion. There is an old world charm about Pathaan’s ‘chivalry’.

ALSO READ: Cancel Culture is Coronavirus of Bollywood

Then there is the suffusion of references to earlier Bollywood films in Pathaan, especially to SRK’s oeuvre, which offer a nostalgic treat to many like me who grew up attached to these films. Watching SRK crooning ‘Tu hai meri Karen’ to a Russian woman, sent the audience tittering in delight, and, similarly, the exclamation ‘Bhaag Pathaan, bhaag!’ brought to mind a similar scene from the cult favourite, Karan Arjun.

I think the highlight for many who watched the film were the sequences that brought together Shah Rukh and Salman (in a surprise cameo) who have been seen as forming the ruling Khan triad (along with Aamir) in Bollywood of the post-liberalisation decades. To see these competing actors come together as allies, but also in such good humour, was fun.

The film’s political standpoint is conservative, but in a cultural climate where jingoism is incentivised and Bollywood is succumbing to it, the film takes pains to clarify its preference for a popular, secular patriotism. When a rogue Indian agent (played by John Abraham) taunts Pathaan about his unrequited love for ‘Bharat Mata’, Pathaan responds with ‘Jai Hind’ and JFK’s iconic quote about not asking what the nation can do for you but what you can do for it. On the face value, it’s a cliché, but seen as the response of a hounded star who has responded to Islamophobic vitriol with dignified silence, it becomes eloquent.

The film builds up Pathaan’s character as a people’s hero—someone whose identity is not defined by parentage or religion, but by the affection and trust of the people who welcome him, give him his name, and a mission to fulfill–being the molten gold that holds together the broken pieces of a wounded nation. And it is the symbolic charge of this ‘Pathaan promise’ of a people’s beloved star, which has made the film the phenomenon it is.

(The narrator is Visiting Faculty of English at Ashoka University, Sonepat, Haryana)

As told to Amit Sengupta