Pathaan

I went in to see this because of positive RT scores and comments which said this movie reeked of action. The reviewers just left out the part where they were supposed to say the action was unbelievable. It is worth a watch if you have 2.5 hours to kill.

The fight choreography between SRK and 'Jim' (I'm too tired to look up the actor's name) were exceptional. Those featuring Padukone were kind of hit and miss. Sometime they reached Marvel's Black Widow heights, other times they were almost laughable.

Jim was a good villain. His backstory was touching and you could empathize with him and the reasons that he was doing what he was doing. I couldn't root for him because you already know how the story is going to end but you just don't know how they will get there.

Finally, the soundtrack (or background music). It was repetitive when there was a fight between the protagonist and antagonist. So much so that I found it irritating after a while.

SRK was once a favourite of mine. I only watched this movie because of him. I was disgusted with the filmmakers and script writers after viewing it. The movie occasionally deviates from logic, as evidenced by one scene where the heroes were seen running at the speed of a train! It is difficult to get crowds to the theatre with these scripts and directions!

Please halt the visual effects. It appears really manufactured. Why would you need VFX with seasoned actors like SRK and Salman Khan?

Bollywod needs to give good narratives and direction some serious thought. Sad to watch Bollywood struggling to survive when Tollywood is suddenly earning recognition on a global scale.

Was waiting for this day for over 2 years. I hoped this would finally be the movie that would blow my mind after such a long streak of hindi movie dissapointments. Excited saw it first day first show and it just added to the streak. If there was no SRK this would be a flop, no question. Relying on his hype to carry this only.

The good: SRK is Back The Train Sequence!

John a great bad guy Deepika was extremely attractive Songs are decent Pathaan character background Hand to hand action choreography

The bad: Story - predictable, plagiarised (...even lion king!) and meanders, very dissapointing.

Poor VFX - 50- 75% action relies on vfx, its almost cartoony Silly Action sequences - the action sequences are just silly rather than thrilling...when its hand to hand, fantastic, but everything else is literally just dumb.

All other characters are forgettable...literal cardboard cutouts.

1 of 4 jokes land - robles, cringe.

Background score weaker to war - being massive fan of war, i knew each beat and when would hit, was perfect background score, this was on and off.

Overall: You could watch if diehard SRK fan, but please do not expect a good story, (If you do go, Train sequence is unmissable) but action is not something you havent seen before, cheaper version of similar stunts taken from iconic action movies.

As a part of the audience, I feel that I just have to write this review, as unfortunate as it may be. I watched Pathaan with my family and there were multiple scenes that were just inappropriate and unnecessary. Other than that, the plot was super unclear and I didn't understand why a virus was brought into it. I thought we would be seeing something new, as there are many films from the past that have this same trope of a deadly virus. The movie was 2 hrs and 30 minutes approximately, quite a long film but I don't understand why everything in the film, every sequence, felt rushed and like it didn't make much sense. I also found the CGI and VFX extremely fake and artificial, which was disappointing. I know that a team and actors worked really hard to make this film as they do others, but I feel that Pathaan just took advantage of the fact that there were stars like SRK, Deepika, John Abraham, and Salman Khan in it. Would you genuinely enjoy the film had it been some other actors? Anyway, I do feel like I had my hopes up too high for this film. I just hope that Bollywood can make good films again soon.

I have watched Srk since Badshah days and I have to say, his luck has run out in terms of picking the right project.

Tigmanshu Dhulia once said in an interview that SRK is oscar material if someone can extract the craft from him. Sadly Siddharth Anand is not the guy. All new-age upcoming directors should watch this movie only to learn how to not make one.

I can't think of any positives other than the fact that the project offered employment to the technicians of various departments.

PS: You'll enjoy this movie if you have liked the previous Indian Masala 'RAW AGENT' Twerking on a dance number in the middle of a covert op garbage but even then Pathaan is not better than Siddharth Anand's previous attempts at filmmaking.

If like me, you enjoyed the Bourne series, Skyfall, Ghost Protocol, Zero Dark Thirty, Sicario or even some decent Indian projects like Baby, Naam Shabana and Airlift then stay away from this. It's Brain cancer.