There is a moment in Pathaan, the new Bollywood film that has raked in historic profits in its debut week at the box office, when the titular character, played by Shah Rukh Khan (known as SRK), is asked: “Are you a Muslim?”
He deflects the question and answers that he doesn’t know what he is since he is an orphan who was abandoned in a cinema hall. “My country brought me up. That’s why I chose to serve my country and joined the army,” he adds. The scene tells us everything we need to know about the film and reveals SRK’s attitude towards religion in India.
But we shall return to that. First, let’s talk about the plot.
In the thriller, Pathaan is tasked with stopping a deadly attack planned by an Indian ex-spy, Jim (John Abraham), who joins forces with a Pakistani army general, Qadir (Manish Wadhwa).
The movie villains threaten to unleash a lethal virus over a city in India that would annihilate its entire population. The Pakistani general wants to retaliate against India’s decision to revoke Article 370, or the special status of the semi-autonomous region of Kashmir, while the former spy has a personal axe to grind with his former bosses.
Pathaan, a special agent working at the top of India’s intelligence agency, RAW, has to pair up, albeit awkwardly at first, with Pakistani spy Rubina (Deepika Padukone) to save India from the deranged duo.
Since the film’s main antagonist is an aggrieved Indian former spy working at the behest of a Pakistani general, it has been applauded for providing some nuance to the longstanding geopolitical rivalry existing between the neighbouring countries. So, in this way, Pathaan, a “good” Indian Muslim, works with Rubina, a “good” Pakistani agent, to prevent a massacre in India orchestrated by a “bad” Pakistani general and a “bad” errant Indian agent.
This story was originally published in middleeasteye.net . Read the full story here