If you’re limiting your action diet to American fare like Mission: Impossible, The Fast and the Furious, and John Wick, you’re missing out. Those are great fun, don’t get us wrong, but there’s a whole world of glorious cinematic violence out there that’ll absolutely melt your brain with its dynamism and imagination, packed with all the stunts, fights, chases, and crashes you could ask for. Take, for example, Indian actioner Pathaan, which is in cinemas now.
The fourth in the wildly popular YRF Spy Universe (it’s now India’s second-biggest grossing film franchise) Pathaan sees Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the title role, a disavowed RAW agent (RAW being India’s version of the CIA, more or less) who has to head off a planned terrorist attack on Indian soil. His opposite number is Jim (John Abraham), another former RAW agent who is bent on revenge, blaming the agency for the death of his wife and unborn child. Lone wolf Pathaan must team up with ISI agent Rubina “Rubai” Mohsin (Deepika Padukone) to take on this particularly deadly opponent, who knows all of RAW’s tricks and tactics as well as the agents themselves.
Essentially a Hindi riff of the Jason Bourne/James Bond model, Pathaan is a kinetic explosion of action, a wildly over-the-top blockbuster extravaganza that packs almost every second of its 146 minute running time with mind-blowing stunts and spectacle. Any pretense to realism is smartly left in its dust in favour of the kind of bombastic set pieces and dazzling glamour we just don’t see enough of anymore.
Anyone who caught last year’s Telugu-language banger RRR knows that Indian action cinema is absolutely peaking right now and Pathaan is a perfect introduction to this wild world of rousing adventure. And if you’re already on board? Well, we’d be surprised if you haven’t booked tickets already. Get on it!
