Watching Pathaan as my first Bollywood film on the big screen

Pathaan

Pathaan | 2023 | Siddharth Anand | Action/Thriller

As someone who has grown up watching Bollywood films, I had not once watched one on the big screen. It was by complete accident that I found Pathaan on the website of Pathé cinema. The way excitement and pure surprise lingered even after I had sat in the red velvety chair. I was mostly surprised because they don’t screen Bollywood films in big, mainstream cinema theatres. The excitement came from profound love for my favourite actors Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, who I had never seen on anything bigger than a TV. Therefore, I can’t help but make this analysis more personal.

Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan) works to stop a private terrorist organization from attacking the President of India. The organization is led by Jim (John Abraham), a former RAW-agent who seeks vengeance for the death of his wife and unborn child. While Pathaan is trying to stop Jim, he comes to learn about the deadly virus “Raktbeej” which is what Jim wants to use to get his vengeance. While chasing after Jim, Pathaan meets Rubina (Deepika Padukone), an ex-ISI agent. They work together with a few others to recover the virus from Jim’s lab in Siberia. During the final fight scene, Pathaan manages to steal the detonator from Jim and deactivates the virus.

Signing the contract of suspension of disbelief, with the audience from the beginning, is what’s done perfectly. The screenplay has divergent storylines, with much use of flashbacks and flashbacks within a flashback. Many elements of storytelling overlap and in some scenes lose their meaning, or it is picked too neatly to the point it becomes a cliché. However, Pathaan is not a film to be watched with the expectation of an exquisite story. It is simply entertainment at its most heightened point, and it doesn’t claim to be anything else. This is entirely fair to the film’s audience because it doesn’t want the viewer to think it is anything other than an entertaining experience. Which it definitely was for me and many others.

Forget the extravagant production design, known as one of the most typical components of Bollywood films. That does not appear in Pathaan. Its place is taken by Visual effects and computer-generated imagery, which enhance the realm of the story but remain a bit flat in their execution. Throughout the film, it appears in slight or big ways to convey the narrative. This could mean distance and disconnect if it is too overpowering for the audience.

Pathaan

One song in a 146-minute film had my beating organ sink to the depths of the abyss. I had hoped to hear another song composed for the film. The theme and closing song is not being included here since it is not shown as part of the story time, meaning the time which covers the entire story, including flashbacks. It is understandable to weigh the general view of someone who hasn’t seen a Hindi film yet, I do not believe one should change their creation too much to appeal to a group of people.

The transitions within the very first physical combat scene were very well shot. The cinematography intensified the well choreographed movements of the actors. Both the camera work and the fighting have been edited in a fast-paced manner. When the audience observes the point of view shots of Pathaan, it appears as though the audience is playing a game on the PC. The action sequence also made use of rhythmic editing. This means that certain movements succeed each other within the montage or make use of repetition.

Becoming the film that makes history worldwide as the first Hindi film to gross over $100 million was nothing to be shocked by, since the film was created for the western countries. After the film ended, I was conflicted by this knowledge. I absolutely love all Shah Rukh and Deepika films together, but this was not like any of them. Screenplay aside, the way the story was captured felt like any other Hollywood blockbuster film. It felt slightly disappointing, even though I adored the experience of watching them on the big screen. I hope that Pathaan is the gateway for Bollywood films to be regularly screened at big cinemas in the west.