ASPRIGHTLY, ENTERTAINING COMEBACK FROM SRK

He is an old trouper living off the grid. He's been out of action for a couple of years. He comes shrouded in fanfare and intrigue. 

- SHILAJIT MITRA

When people talk about him, in high circles, they get "uncomfortable". He's a keeper of his word. He is a patriot with a Muslim name, and a son of this soil, though his true religion is the movies. His name is Pathaan, played by Shah Rukh Khan, and they are one and the same.

Every once in a while, we need our superstars in unadulterated form. Think of it as not fan servicing but fan sensitivity. Tom Cruise smiling superciliously in films like Top Gun: Maverick, telling the audience he's got them covered is the very embodiment of that shtick. In contrast to Cruise, who's practically always working, and who is three years his senior, SRK has been on a genuine sabbatical, understandably stymied by the poor receptions of Zero (2018) and Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017). Now he returns, riding high and again in Siddharth Anand's Pathaan. It is an action movie that's really a soft shell of wrapping, disclosing the SRK delivery machine it has packed underneath.