Forget the politics, the stars, the songs, all the rest of it. You may want to skip this movie just because I found myself checking the time every 15 minutes. That’s baaaaaaaaaaaad! Especially since I kept going “It’s only been 15 minutes??? That felt like an hour!”
First, politics wise, this film goes pretty hardcore on border issues. That is unpleasant. But I will say it also did the 1970s “Good Muslim” trope. Complete with a full on Muslim hero funeral at one point. And the violence stayed strictly within combatants, soldiers and “terrorists” only, no innocent bystanders. That makes it a lot easier for me personally to stomach.
On the other and, the gender stuff was very blah blah. Not so bad as to be infuriating, but definitely not great (the usual, “let’s understand and sympathize and gently guide the Patriarchy instead of just BLOWING THEM THE HECK UP”). And Dips’ character was disappointingly bland, feels like they never quite figured out who she was supposed to be.
Yeah, that’s what it was, blah blah. Nothing was so bad as to be infuriating, but nor was it good enough to be entertaining. Decent songs, decent action, it’s just everything else that was dull. Characters didn’t gel, stars didn’t get to stretch their star power, dialogue was bland, even costumes were just okay. Boring.
I was just talking about it with a friend and I think it might be a symptom of Sidharth Anand fatigue? YRF/Sid JUST made Pathaan and went right into this movie. And everything is just kind of good enough to get by. Sidharth Anand is not going to be making some deep psychological drama or anything, I don’t want that from him. But I do expect lots of quotable one liners, non-stop action, crazy twists, over the top visuals (costumes, sets, the works). And this just wasn’t that. I can’t think of a single punchy line of dialogue, or a costume that sticks in mind, and the fight scenes were dull dull dull. Pathaan had helicopters and busses and crazy things! This movie has punching in fire?
So I’m not gonna say “don’t watch it”, if you want to see a movie in theaters, and you can stomach jingoism, do it. But I’m also not going to say “not to be missed!” It’s just boring.
