It’s a typical late-life crises of the ‘Old and the Critical’ ! We don’t seem to agree or even remotely connect with many of the latest fads and fashions but it’s not wise to comment. We don’t represent popular sentiment of masses and mean no disrespect to their tastes ! But the kind of euphoric reaction to some of the humungous ‘entertainers’ (big budget films) of late, in terms of the mind-boggling box-office numbers and ‘moolah’ raked in by film-makers, fandom of fading superstars restored, is beyond simple logic.
A lot of heavy-duty groundwork, favorable media reporting and pre-release ‘promos’ are the order of the day for these films giving them a ‘larger than life’ look, much before they hit the screens but that’s how show-biz works, one presumes. The amounts invested in their making seem astronomical and would be financial disasters if the films crashed but in the post-Covid times, it’s bahut ‘acche-din’ again for some of the biggies (led by the much acclaimed and invigorating South creations like ‘Pushpa’ & ‘RRR’ but it was SRK’s mega success of ‘Pathan’ and now ‘Jawan’ (with ‘Gadar 2’ also hitting the bull’s eye ! ) that’s revived ‘Bollywood’s’ masala fare and importantly restored SRK his ‘King’ status !
Not having seen any of these blockbusters in the picture halls for various reasons that included ‘Not Our Type’, I finally decided to watch ‘Pathan’ as it’s now available on OTT, having earned 1000 crs globally I read somewhere to my utter incredulity ! Having been weaned on ‘Bond’ films from the tender age of 18, we could sit through any them again, as long as Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan were James Bond ! The first half-hour of ‘Pathan’ indicated with hi-tech intensive stunts that SRK was playing the desi ‘Bond’, high on nationalism & Deepika does a ‘Halle Berry’ of ‘Die Another Day’ ! While I’m an avid film buff, I admit I had to leave ‘Pathan’ mid-way out of sheer ennui !
Let’s understand the issue on hand, not everyone is an SRK ‘bhakt’ specially if they come from the era of actors in the class of great thespians like Balraj Sahani, Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, later Naseer, Om Puri, Irfan Khan and of course Big B. Even we understand the power SRK’s charisma spread all across as the ‘king of romance’, but his critics will single out only two movies that showed acting prowess ‘Chak De’ and ‘Pardes’- in all his other films, he remained in his super-star stance and imagery – hands spread wide !
As was said earlier on, at our stage of peaceful coexistence, to see profound emotions, great stories, cinematic artistry and aesthetic nuances depicted on screen appeal more to our senses than stunts, mindless fights and gadgets that fly around and that must explain that we aren’t the target audiences for all the action packed blockbusters and sci-fi movies. They will continue to be made as other people seem to love them …
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