Thread: Pathan: A Bland, Empty Spectacle

Venue: Reel Cinemas, Dubai Marina Mall
Status: around 4 people

When you make a blockbuster oriented film, the least you can do even with a regurgitated plot and borrowed scenes is to make it look interesting on screen. Pathan is at best like playing a video game. Even video games these days are far more interesting than any of the action sequences Pathan had to offer.

Seriously with a cast comprising of Dimple Kapadia, Asutosh Rana, Deepika, SRK and John sorry Jim, this is the best that could be provided? The actors seemed to have traded their real selves for machine selves. SRK looked old and disinterested throughout while John has the screen presence in a one-note character. The dialogues are cringey and laughable. And Deepika and the females in this film are just eye-candy with no interesting arc or memorable scenes of their own. They are just objectified for their looks and body structure, but hey given the massive pay check she would have obtained, who can complain? The visuals look attractive but after a while, you can tell these are CGI and green screens.

With the exception of the Salman-SRK action sequence and two songs (Besharam Rang and the Arabic song at the end, which was well choreographed), I cannot recommend anything from this sorry excuse of a film. The movie reminded me of Beast a lot but even that film was a 'so bad its good' level of entertainment. Whereas Pathan is just yawn-inducing and I lost interest well before the interval as to the motivations and moves of the characters. I cannot believe that even action scenes in a big film could be this boring and bland. Deepika's action scenes were itself so lazily conceived that if Darshana Rajendran were to accidentally watch those scenes, she would not be blamed for being extra proud for the level of effort she put in for her action sequences in Jaya Jaya He.

Bollywood, when will you stop with these melodramatic love stories even in the midst of an action scene? When will you stop normalising a hot guy and girl meeting, and they fall in love after seconds? When will something new come out from this pathetic mess of an industry? When will you guys start to make some sort of an effort to stay relevant when far superior content is coming from independent Hindi films and the other languages down South?

A film which was not even remotely engaging at any point and only worth going for a nice 2:30 hours afternoon nap. Pathan is Bollywood cinema at its very worst.

1.5/5

Thx AK

I'm sorry...looking at the box office numbers, its sure that we will have to endure more of this type of stuff at least in the foreseeable future!

Thanks Aravind, last part of the review and Rating...

Thankyou, I thought it was just me but now I have company

2 things to add

-The Na Na Na chant every time John Abraham is introduced
-The ridiculous amount of exposition and dialogue just before an action scene starts. Seriously guys, just get on with things!

Originally Posted by sethumadhavan

I'm sorry...looking at the box office numbers, its sure that we will have to endure more of this type of stuff at least in the foreseeable future!

Tastes and opinions differ and to each his own and one must acknowledge the humongous BO, but this movie was terrible for me personally!

Originally Posted by Aravind Krishnan

Tastes and opinions differ and to each his own and one must acknowledge the humongous BO, but this movie was terrible for me personally!

Personally I too can't stand this type of stuff. I empathize. I stopped watching mainstream Bollywood movies a long time back.

thanks