Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham starrer Pathaan released today, and I managed to catch the morning 7 am show of this Siddharth Anand directorial. While King Khan has made brief cameos in a few films in the last four years, Pathaan marked his comeback as the leading man, and fans were naturally waiting to witness this moment on the big screen. Just when I joined the queue at the security checkpoint of the cinema hall, I could hear the murmurs of excitement and nervous conversations among all the SRK fans, who were coming up with their own theories of Pathaan’s plot. The viewing hall was packed, and was bustling with rare enthusiasm and anticipation.
Soon the lights went out, and the beginning of Pathaan was met with the loudest cheer, but the biggest one was reserved for Shah Rukh Khan’s entry. The scene is packaged with a high octane action sequence, and the viewers had their cameras out to get a snap of this larger-than-life portion. The action in this part is well choreographed, and sets the tone for the narrative of the whole movie, which is a cat and mouse chase between SRK’s Pathaan and John Abraham’s Jim. 
The first half of Pathaan is layered with many high points which keeps the audience hooked through the first 60 minutes of the film. Writer-director Siddharth Anand has distributed these sequences in a way that keeps you engaged in the story. Post Shah Rukh’s introduction sequence, it is John Abraham’s entry which sent the fans in a tizzy. However, one sequence of his which received the largest hoots was when he enters in a pair of white shorts. This sequence set in Spain introduces a new angle with Deepika Padukone’s character, which is introduced right before, with her entry song - “Besharam Rang”. I could see a few members of the audience grooving on their seats, while SRK and Deepika did their own steps on the big screen. Deepika’s entry was superbly received by the audience.
The pre and post interval scenes are also well planned. While the sequence before the interval leaves the audience with a question, the post interval sequence is easily the biggest highlight of the film - where Salman Khan makes his impactful entry as his beloved character - Avinash Singh Rathore aka Tiger. It goes without saying that this part is the biggest treat for cinema lovers who have grown up on Salman and Shah Rukh films. Watch out for one special sequence right at the end, which you shouldn't miss at all.
One of the primary roles of cinema is to entertain, and after so long that feeling of joyousness and celebration was felt in a theatre. Let’s hope this love from the audience continues to shower not only on Pathaan, but for all the deserving projects that are releasing in the future.
