Pathan review

If there was any doubt that Shah Rukh Khan is still the king of Bollywood cinema (besides being one of the Empirethe best actors of ), pathans dismiss those concerns within the first five minutes. The 57-year-old actor, held captive by a mob of vicious thugs, quickly dispatches them in a barrage of john wick–Esque moves, all while sporting abs you can scratch cheese on and hair that’s always blowing in the wind thanks to a seemingly invisible wind machine.

In many ways, pathans is designed to be the perfect Bollywood blockbuster, to break the string of big budget flops that have been plaguing the industry lately. The fourth installment in the hugely popular YRK Spy Universe (think MCU, but with chiseled Indian secret agents instead of superheroes), Pathaan offers everything an Indian blockbuster should: a guaranteed box office draw with Khan, exotic locations, crowd, awe-inspiring dance numbers and gravity-defying stunts that make the Fast & Furious appearance of a limited franchise.

But this is also the problem. if you saw Mission Impossible This is Fast & Furious films of the last decade, there is nothing too new pathans. The storyline offers few things you have never seen before: stolen viruses, betrayed secret agents, double-crosses, triple-crosses and car chases in fascinating locations. And while Tom Cruise and Vin Diesel have huge budgets to play with, pathans – despite being one of the highest-budget Indian films of all time – it doesn’t have the Hollywood cash to fully pull off its more elaborate action sequences.

Ultimately, it is Shah Rukh Khan’s sheer charisma that holds it all together. Whether he’s flirting with Pakistani agent Deepika Padukone, trading jokes with top terrorist John Abraham or jokingly berating his superiors, it’s easy to see why he remains one of the world’s most popular stars, despite a four-year hiatus. And it clearly worked because, at the time of writing, pathansThe box office returns broke records both at home and abroad, ensuring that, like another super spy before him, Pathaan will be back.