YRF’s Pathaan gave a new life to the Muslim identity portraying Shah Rukh Khan who plays the titular role as a person who is patriotic and is willing to give his life for the country. That was the big plus point of Pathaan movie and the audience simply lapped it up. Pathaan brought about a historic change and an evolution of Muslim representation in Hindi cinema for the first time.
Pathaan was written in a very different way Hindi cinema has visualised Muslim characters in the past. The character Pathaan played by SRK doesn’t hide his Muslim identity and calls himself ‘son of India’. That is what touched the hearts of the audiences and still even after so many weeks of its release, people can’t stop dancing to Jhoome Joh Pathaan.
Pathaan (SRK) doesn’t ask what his country can do for him, rather he asks what he can do for his country unlike Jim played by John Abraham. Such is the popularity of Pathaan that recently we saw a video featuring professors and students of a Delhi college grooving to the beats of the song ‘Jhoome Jo Pathaan’. Other than a few like Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milega Dobara Farhan Akhtar plays the role of Imran where the character is head to toe Muslim and the same with Pathaan where no stress is given on the religious identity and yet the character is unapologetically Muslim Indian. [caption id=“attachment_12129172” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Pathaan[/caption] The success of Pathaan was humongous. Yash Raj Films’ Pathaan, directed by Siddharth Anand is a historic all-time blockbuster and is already the highest grossing Hindi film worldwide with collections at 1006 crore gross. Today, it recorded an incredible feat by becoming the first Hindi film to enter the hallowed 500 crore club in India with its Hindi version. Pathaan is a part of Aditya Chopra’s ambitious YRF spy Universe and has also become the highest grossing film of the Spy franchise. Read all the
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Explained: How SRK’s Pathaan broke the stereotype of Muslim representation in Bollywood
Explained: How SRK’s Pathaan broke the stereotype of Muslim representation in Bollywood
Lachmi Deb Roy
• February 24, 2023, 18:40:01 IST
The representation of Muslims in dark light goes back to Mani Ratnam’s Roja. It was Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan which broke the stereotype of bad Muslims and good Hindus.
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Written by Lachmi Deb Roy
Lachmi Deb Roy is the entertainment editor of Firtspost, Network18. She reviews films and series with a gender lens. Her interviews are called 'Not Just Bollywood' because she takes huge interest in world cinema. OTT over theatrical releases is her preference unless and until its a King Khan film. She takes interest in fashion, food and art reviews too. see more

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