How Shahrukh Khan's KISS gave a kick to Pathaan!

By
Shahrukh Khan's Kiss for Pathaan - Kartik Dayanand Boddapati

#Pathaan Kiss karne nahi….Kick karne aaya hai….

That was Shahrukh Khan’s response to a silly question on Twitter during one of his many #AskSRK sessions before the release of Pathaan. However, what he said is just the partial truth and he did KISS.

Before you jump to other conclusions—KISS means Keep it simple, stupid!

The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated.

That’s exactly what Shahrukh Khan did to set up the stage for Pathaan’s blockbuster success. The same principle is also used to structure and mount the film too.

Let me elaborate with a similar KISS approach. I’ll pick 5 areas to focus on. At places I’ll use Shahrukh Khan’s tweets to help with the story. Here it goes…

1. The Promotions

In this age of relentless movie promotions, this film was an exception—we saw no interviews to the media, no roadshows, no pre-release events, no nonsense—just simple AMA (ask me anything) sessions on Twitter with the hashtag #AskSRK.

Those sessions gave enough fodder for all media outlets to generate unlimited buzz about the movie. It was the smartest move from one of the smartest marketing brains of the film industry.

Here’s the logic straight from the horse’s mouth, or should I say lion’s mouth….boom!

And then this one. Can’t get more simple than this.
Along with that there were two songs, one teaser and one trailer—all on YouTube—that’s all.

2. The Boycott

Irrespective of the saffron bikini, the boycott gang was working overtime to stop people from watching the film—a general trend over the last few years where Bollywood has been systematically demonised.

What does SRK do?

Once again, instead of going to TV channels and giving interviews or explanations SRK simply uses the power of Twitter to show how serious he is about those bringing in negativity towards the film.

This was the only thing he had to say.

The general audience did the rest at the box office.

3. The Story

Sharhrukh Khan tried some crazy concepts in recent times with movies like Zero, Fan, Jab Harry Met Sejal—all extremely complicated with layers of subtext and what not, let’s not get into all that—we can simply say they weren’t simple movies.

With Pathaan he keeps it super simple: Pathaan has to come back from vanvaas to save the world. That’s it.

The story starts with the threat and everything else in the movie, one spectacular action block after another, leads to the point at the end of the movie where the threat is eliminated. Simple.

There’s only one song in the movie and that too to advance the narrative, and one song during the end credits.

The story doesn’t go into any other unnecessary tangents or melodrama, with everything zooming ahead at rocket speed to saving the world.

4. The Subtext

While the story might be simple, there’s solid yet very simple subtext that doesn’t distract us from the proceedings on screen. Here are five of them.

  1. Movie starts with the mention of abolition of Article 370 in Kashmir—that’s the trigger for the rest of the movie. Going by the current trend of appeasing the powers at the centre, we expect that at some point the Prime Minister and Home Minister will be invoked in a glorious manner. Nothing of that sort happens. Politicians have no place in the story; it’s only nation first and then the soldiers who protect the nation.

  2. Politicians are actually sent back to their factory settings. In one scene where there’s talk about not paying a ransom, Pathaan asks if the same standards are applied to politicians. That’s a simple yet massive reset of public perception about politicians.

  3. When asked if he’s a Muslim, Pathaan shares a simple truth—as an orphan he has no clue which religion he belongs to, but whatever he is today is because of what the people of this country made him. It’s nation first and everything else next. Quite a solid message that is. He echoes that sentiment in the following tweet too.

  1. “Don’t ask what the nation did for you; instead ask what you did for the nation.” It’s maybe not a subtext but the main text of the movie.

  2. “Don’t leave it to the kids.” If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I am talking about. If you haven’t seen the movie, I am not giving you any spoilers now.

5. The Philosophy

This is an extension of the subtext bit but more at a personal level for the actors and technicians involved with the film. Before I come to Shahrukh Khan I’ll quickly cover the others.

Deepika Padukone

This film is her victory too along with that of Shahrukh Khan. She’s been the target of relentless hate, especially since her appearance at the JNU protest. She managed to maintain a dignified silence and let her work do the rest.

Also in this day and age of every second picture on Instagram competing with the stars on screen it is difficult to maintain that exclusivity or desirability—but oh man, she looks like a billion bucks on screen. Truly larger than life, not just in her ability to look glamorous but also to match Shahrukh Khan’s charisma on screen. It’s a sweet comeback for her.

YRF

The production house had a disastrous run over the last few years, yet went ahead and placed its bets on Pathaan. They are now firmly back on the map of blockbuster hits and with the #YRFSpyUniverse the sky is the limit.

John Abraham

John is the best villain that one could ask for in such a movie. It’s great to see his comeback. He still manages to retain his Greek god looks and plays his part convincingly.

Shahrukh Khan

Shahrukh Khan has been our biggest star since the early 90s, but has seen the lowest phase of his career over the last decade or so. How did he deal with it.

And this was his reaction after his massive comeback to the top with Pathaan.

He goes back to the drawing board; doesn’t brood, builds a solid physique and turns into a super convincing action hero—something he’s only dabbled in occasionally—but with Pathaan he’s into full-blown action mode.

His future looks exciting now with the #YRFSpyUniverse as well as his next ‘Jawan’ with Atlee and then Raju Hirani’s ‘Dunki’. He’s back at the top once again; and it’s so good to see him there.

That’s Shahrukh Khan keeping it super simple.

We can now safely say this about Pathaan—SRK ne KISS bhi kiya, aur Kick bhi kiya!

Cheers!!!

Kartik Dayanand Boddapati



Spread the word:


Comments

Post a Comment

Let me know what you think of this post

Trending posts this week

3 Idiots: Confusing a Nation!

By
Image
Ok, so 3 idiots , the current Bollywood flick is officially the biggest blockbuster of Indian cinema. An amazing movie with a terrific plotline and characters. Topping it all is the brilliant message it delivers encouraging one to follow the heart, rather than go by the conditioning of parents when it comes to choosing ones profession. At the same time it encourages the pursuit of Excellence rather than the pursuit of Success. A nation agrees but I am a little confused. The issue is not with the message itself, but by the method through which it is conveyed. Let me explain myself.
Read more...

The Misunderstood Animal: Why Ranvijay Singh Balbir is a Feminist

By
Image
In this age of short attention spans Sandeep Reddy Vanga has done the unthinkable with his latest film Animal—he has not only managed to hold our attention in the theatres with a film that’s three hours twenty one minutes long, but also managed to sustain that attention by turning the movie into a topic of intense debate that’s still going on.   Like everyone else I have an opinion too, rather opinions, and have been tweeting intermittently about them, but the film’s success as well as the criticism it has been receiving calls for deeper introspection.   Through this post I hope to touch upon some of the aspects that I found interesting about the film; both good and bad.   In the process I’ll also try and explain why I feel Ranbir Kapoor’s character in the film Ranvijay Singh Balbir is a feminist and not a misogynist. I suspect many others feel that way too but don’t realise it yet or are able to say it out loudly. Hear me out and then you can either agree or disagree with me. Whatever
Read more...

Secret ingredient for great movies - Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and more!

By
Image
What's that One Secret Ingredient that separates great movies from the ordinary ones? I've been mulling about this idea for a long time and the recent Telugu film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo was the trigger that made me post this video. It's not a film review; you don't need one at this stage :) I instead focus on the structure of film making and see what great movies have in common. Do watch the video and let me know what you think; also tell me what other movies do you think fall under the categories that I mention here.
Read more...

Raavan: Rocket Science Explained!

By
Image
It certainly must be rocket science, otherwise how can one explain the conflicting and bizarre feedback for the latest Mani Ratnam movie Raavan. Sample this, most Hindi audiences hate this movie, it’s a huge hit in its Tamil version down south, western critics have hailed it as a masterpiece while our popular Indian critics have trashed it. A small minority swear by this movie and a majority simply hate this movie. How is it possible that one movie can evoke such extreme reactions? What Mani Ratnam has made is something far more controversial than the original man with ten heads. It is a debatable point whether Raavan was a bad man or a victim of circumstances, but the debate whether Raavan the movie is good or bad is even more confusing.  Let me make my stand clear at the outset, I loved this movie, probably  I am the only one to have watched it thrice already within the first week of release, twice in Hindi and once in Tamil, also not to forget the songs in T
Read more...

Artificial Intelligence vs Authentic Intelligence: The moral battle of the future

By
Image
We have been reading many stories about Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially since the emergence of ChatGPT—a generative AI tool that possesses immense human-like powers to consume and create content on the fly.   They say only those who embrace AI will thrive in the future, and that it will replace most jobs that humans can do today. There are others, like Elon Musk, who say this AI technology has the potential to go rogue and it needs to be regulated before it’s too late.   Whatever the verdict on that, and whether people choose to use these AI tools or not, one thing is for sure:   AI is going to impact all our lives at a very fundamental human level, and there’s no escaping that.   To illustrate my point, I would like to share three mini stories that I encountered recently.   These are simple stories; not about the wonderful things AI can do for us; but about our reaction to that as humans—leading to the discussion about the battle we all will find ourselves in eventually.   On
Read more...

Do Dooni Chaar: A timely classic!

By
Image
Do you remember this line from the promotion of the iconic movie Rambo from the late 80’s?  This time it is going to be personal! I always wanted to use that line and today it’s my turn. Wondering where Rambo figures with respect to the movie Do Dooni Chaar? That’s because unlike all other movies that i wrote about in the past, this time it is personal. Personal because i am closely associated with the people who made this film and was witness to a part of the making of this little gem of a movie. I am going to share with you a few of my experiences. In case you only want to know what i think about the movie, then jump to the last paragraph.
Read more...

K.G.F vs K.G.F: Why I like Chapter 1 better than Chapter 2

By
Image
If ever there is a competition to determine who is the biggest fan of K.G.F Chapter 1, I would either win that contest hands down or end up as one of the strongest contenders.   I lost count of the number of times I watched that film, but I am sure it will be over 100 times. As a keen observer of films, and how they work on our psyche, I’ve been fascinated by the appeal of this film. So much so that I’ve started writing a book about it. It’s the second book in my upcoming book series ‘Movies Beyond Stars’ .   As a natural outcome of my fascination for K.G.F Chapter 1, I turned into the unofficial cheerleader of K.G.F Chapter 2 on Twitter.  For a few years now I have been repeatedly saying that Chapter 2 had the best chances of success as a pan-India film compared to all other films, even above RRR.   So, when the big day arrived, I was not surprised to see the outcome - the record breaking collections of Chapter 2.   I went ahead and watched the film too.   However, by the end of the f
Read more...

Shahrukh Khan and the journey of Chennai Express

By
Image
 “I am normal, naam toh suna hi hoga” In one of the many goofy scenes from Chennai Express, Shahrukh Khan (SRK) rattles his trademark dialogue but mistakenly uses the word ‘Normal’ in place of ‘Rahul’. It was intended to be a pun but it aptly sums up the box office phenomenon of Chennai Express and how Shahrukh Khan finally after a long hiatus gets back to being normal - which is - being the king of the box office. His last normal movie was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi way back in 2008. A lot has happened since then and Chennai Express arrives like all Indian trains, late by at least 4 odd years but is a wait well worth it for die hard SRK fans. What happened inbetween both these movies is what forms the bulk of this post and then I will go on to speak a little more about Chennai Express and a little more about SRK. If you are not a Shahrukh Khan fan, than this post is probably not for you, don't say I didn't warn you! Ok, I am kidding, I want you to read it too. Let’s no
Read more...