In the past few decades, Bollywood films have received praise and criticism alike.
Even the most devoted fans of a star have not reciprocated well to movies with poor content or improper logic, no matter how strong their pull is over the audience as a whole.
Watching a movie is a well-designed process. A trip to the theatre isn’t just about buying tickets and spending three hours there. It is about living a fantasy for at least three hours of your entire life. Because of this, movie-goers will reduce their footfall at cinemas if they miss something or shift their attention for a moment.
Be it Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ or Salman Khan’s ‘Radhe’, no movie has been able to reach its expected consequence that was anticipated. Are the fans bored of the same adrenaline rush they used to get with the entry of their film star? Or has the content been so mediocre that the audience is trying to shift to a new medium or language in order to find the same adrenaline rush?
Let’s break it down with FromTheField.
COVID – 19:
COVID introduced most people in the world to entertain themselves from their homes. The era of OTT began and people were introduced to movies of various languages, cultures, and geographic locations. As a result of which, the same viewers who had a particular interest in high-octane mindless movies, shifted their time and attention to meaningful ones.
However, don’t get me wrong here, as high-octane mindless movies are the ones that actually take the stress off your busy life and for those 2-3 hours one gets to live a life that is fascinating and distant from the real one. Certainly, COVID was not a great time for everyone, and releasing a movie at that time would have created more problems for the star after ‘Zero’.
The Absence Effect :
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. For Shah Rukh Khan, the absence of such a mega star created a wave of positivity, and all those people who aren’t even die-hard fans of SRK wished for his comeback as if it was the beginning of normalcy. Everyone was so done with COVID that they wanted to go back in time.
Although, Pathaan’s story may not have been exceptional and the visual effects were average at best, the film’s theatrics – particularly the unwavering love of a soldier for it’s country, the justification for the title, “Pathaan”, and of course SRK’s powerful delivery of each and every line with extreme savagery – were truly a treat for fans. The makers were clever to include dialogues like “3 saal se koi khabar nahi (It’s been three years since we heard of him)”. This drew a reference to his own career when he was literally taking time off from the screen for 3 years after ‘Zero’ and for those who thought his career was done, SRK delivered them a message with his iconic: “Zinda Hai (still alive!)”.
Introduction of Spy-Universe:
SRK and Salman have a huge fan base in India and overseas. India has celebrated every time they have come together on screen. The 20-minute action set piece in Pathaan that sets the premise for SRK’s cameo in Tiger 3 (a part of YRF’s Spy universe) is something fans literally screamed their lungs out to.
While I personally am not a big fan of universes because I know that at some point all of this will end and will create an everlasting void in all our minds (just what happened with the Avengers), I still am looking forward if they will be able to pull this off. While SRK and Salman are undoubtedly the biggest sources of audience attraction in India and overseas, without a strong reason or content, I don’t see this going anywhere. Something like a civil war would be good, however, the reason has to be strong and justify the fans of both the superstars, something that was brilliantly shown in SS Rajamouli’s RRR.
Watch Pathaan in theatres if you are a fan of either SRK, John, or Deepika, or if you want to have a weekend hearing people scream with the entry of stars or wait for its OTT release on Prime Video which they are about to announce in a few days.