{"id":57011,"date":"2023-01-30T14:20:26","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T19:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=57011"},"modified":"2023-01-30T14:20:31","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T19:20:31","slug":"pathaan-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/01\/pathaan-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Pathaan \u2013 Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Without a lot of new mainstream releases stepping up to the plate this past weekend, there was room for a surprise hit. Enter \u201cPathaan,\u201d an action movie from India that racked up nearly $6 million at the domestic box office despite playing on fewer than 700 screens. My guess is that many theater owners are going to look at the film\u2019s over-$8,000-per-screen average and decide that they want a piece of that action. So even if \u201cPathaan\u201d isn\u2019t playing in your market already, it may be coming soon.<\/p>\n\n\n

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                Shah Rukh Khan stars as Pathaan, one of the greatest secret agents in all of India. He has recently resurfaced after being missing for two years. The first half of the film is largely devoted to what happened before he went missing, and frankly the flashback goes on so long that it\u2019s easy to forget that it\u2019s even a flashback. Two years ago, Pathaan was on a mission to stop a terrorist named Jim (John Abraham), himself given flashbacks to explain his motivation. While on the mission, Pathaan met up with Rubai (Deepika Padukone), an agent from a rival agency that also saw the threat that Jim presented. A few flip-flops later, and Pathaan found himself in a Russian prison and disavowed by India. Fortunately, he had a brother named Tiger (Salman Khan) from another arm of the apparently-very-popular YRF Spy Universe to help bust him out and disappear for two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Rubai has been conspicuously seen on a security camera in Paris. If she\u2019s back, then so is Pathaan. The joint resurfacing means that Jim\u2019s three-year (yes, three-year) plan is close to fruition, and the whole world is in danger, especially India. Fortunately, they\u2019ve got an agent the caliber of Pathaan on the case, but is he back at full capacity? A shootout, chase, and daring helicopter escape in the hideout of a weapons dealer indicates that yes, he is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of \u201cPathaan\u201d is nothing special, the sort of thing you\u2019d see in a typical James Bond or \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d movie (critics have pointed out that the virus-heavy plot strongly resembles the second film in the latter franchise). But the headline here isn\u2019t the just-okay spy movie that the movie is on paper, it\u2019s the blockbuster you\u2019ll get if you see the movie in theaters. So much of this movie is a feast for the eyes and ears. For the eyes, you\u2019ve got the aforementioned hideout sequence, an abduction sequence involving trucks and helicopters, a heist sequence with a precarious helicopter-assisted landing, an ill-fated train transfer, and plenty of other inventive goodies. And that\u2019s nothing compared to what your ears will get. This movie loves its gunshots and explosions, and the music is exciting and catchy. When I say \u201cthe music,\u201d I don\u2019t just mean the score (though the score is most definitely included), I\u2019m talking about two intoxicating musical numbers, one right in the middle of the film. Let\u2019s see Tom Cruise try that. He might, he was in \u201cRock of Ages,\u201d but I seriously doubt that even he\u2019s fearless enough to interrupt an action movie like that. As for the one at the end, when was the last time you saw James Bond save the world then sing his own theme song to celebrate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPathaan\u201d is sure to lead to an increased presence of Indian action movies on the global stage, especially from this YRF Spy Universe. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing more of them, as apparently they\u2019re hard at work thinking up ways to top the craziness of this movie. The scripts could stand to be tighter, but otherwise they should keep up the good work. Don\u2019t be thrown by the subtitles and cultural differences, the action and beauty of \u201cPathaan\u201d make for a party in any language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPathaan\u201d is not rated by the MPAA, but it would be approximately a PG-13 (bordering on R at times) for violence. Its running time is 146 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver                 Without a lot of new mainstream releases stepping up to the plate this past weekend, there was room for a surprise hit. Enter \u201cPathaan,\u201d an action… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":57012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2113],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57011"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57014,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57011\/revisions\/57014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}