A word of caution on Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan’s mega-success

If by now you don’t know that Pathaan is on the way to becoming one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, then you live under a rock…or maybe you are just in a state of shock.

We all are embraced by a sheath of euphoria and this could be damaging in serious ways. For example, the film industry may think that it was the ‘Pathaan’ /Muslim community that made the film such a hit. In that case, the Balraj Sahni starrer Kabuliwala back in the 1960s would have been a blockbuster too. It was not.

Or for that matter, Kamal Haasan’s brilliant Hey Ram in which Kamal had cast SRK as a Pathaan named after one of his favourites Amjad Khan. For all its brilliance and SRK’s Khan act Hey Ram was a flop.

Post Pathaan there is likely to be an action wave in Bollywood. Several filmmakers are of the opinion that ‘action works’ as it brings it our ‘the junta’s collective anger’. If that were so, how do we explain why Salman Khan’s out-and-out actioners Antim and Radhe were such miserable failures? And what about Kangana Ranaut? She kicked the hell, and yell, out of Arjun Rampal in Dhaakad last year. No one came to see Dhaakad although the stunts were pretty impressive.

So what gave Pathaan that extra kick? That tadka in a daal lake of inert non-performers at the boxoffice?

The truth if you ask me, is to be found in three words: Shah Rukh Khan. The audiences, young and old, Muslim and non-Muslim flocked to see Pathaan, and not because he was missing from the screen for four years. Even Aamir Khan was missing from the screen for four years before Laal Singh Chaddha. Hardly anyone showed up in the theatres for his welcome back.

No. The reason why Shah Rukh Khan’s return generated so much interest was his rigorous reinvention as an action hero. This was no ordinary comeback. This was Shah Rukh Khan focusing on his muscles rather than his romantic persona. And not in any token way. Shah Rukh Khan being Shah Rukh Khan, he went all-out to acquire the physique of an action hero. He trained like an acting student as if Pathaan was his debut film.

Shah Rukh is truly reborn in Pathaan. It is a comeback like no other, comparable only with Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

The naysayers said SRK is over and done, that the protesters would finish off the film and the actor. All of this finally didn’t matter to the audience. They loved SRK’s action avatar. But would they accord the same warm response to SRK’s next release Jawaan which is another out-and-out action film?

Lightning, sorry to say, strikes only once in the same place. But what a lightning this is. Pathaan is so huge it makes RRR look like a teaser trailer.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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