MUMBAI: The director of movies like Salaam Namaste, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Bang Bang, War, Siddharth Anand, is now helming one of the most awaited projects, i.e. Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathan. Even without an official confirmation from the production house, the buzz around this is considerably good.

From the news of Salman Khan’s cameo to shooting high octane action sequences in Dubai, there have been many positive things to hype up the buzz even before the official announcement. Recently, it was revealed that Aditya Chopra is following a Marvel-like strategy to announce the whole roster of YRF’s upcoming films, which will include Pathan as well.

The bigger you go, the higher you raise the bar of expectations from your project – this is the formula Siddharth Anand has used for his last couple of films. Talking about 2014’s Bang Bang – a stylish pair, foreign locations, few never seen before action sequences & a ho-hum story (can’t blame Anand entirely as the story is lifted)

Things didn’t change much for 2019’s War as well – a stylish pair (Hrithik Roshan & Tiger Shroff), foreign locations, few never seen before action sequences & a ho-hum story. Now, we’re sure you must’ve already noticed where the problem lies in both these examples.

If we go out of Sid Anand’s zone, we’ve Prabhas’ Saaho as an example to consider as well. It had every ingredient of a commercial masala film and also did well at the box office. Many reviews on social media pointed out the weakness of a lack of a good story in place. Pretty much on similar lines as Bang Bang & War.

You must be thinking if a Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff could pull off over 300 crores at the box office, it must become easy to Shah Rukh Khan. It won’t. The fact that he’s returning from a sabbatical of almost three years now (which will extend to nearly four years till the movie releases) will somewhere help to gain the initial buzz. But, it requires a whole lot more than that now.

Tiger Shroff did cover-up up the lack of a solid storyline with his insane ability to perform the stunts. John Abraham is the perfect choice for Pathan as he will easily fit the bracket of a ‘stylish hero’ for Siddarth Anand. He’ll try and infuse all his ‘urbanity’ through John’s character giving him the grey shades.

But, where’s the risk in it? Siddharth Anand will need a supremely strong storyline to justify Shah Rukh Khan’s presence in the film. If the story doesn’t click, Pathan will have fewer chances than Bang Bang & War to work.

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With Salman Khan on-board and the exciting rumours of spy-universe doing around, Pathan seems to be on a proper track as of now. All of this comes at a cost that needs to be under control for the film to be commercially viable. Anyone with appropriate trade knowledge must know a Tiger+Hrithik or a Katrina-Hrithik film costs you way lesser than a Shah Rukh Khan-John Abraham-Deepika Padukone film.

Remember Thugs Of Hindostan? Didn’t that film had everything running in its favour until it didn’t? Before that, it was Aamir Khan only defying all the rules proving an exception with Dhoom 3. Despite a chunk of negativity around it, Dhoom 3 was a blockbuster at the box office. Pathan will have to take the Dhoom 3 way (with a better story) and not the Thugs Of Hindostan route.

This could be the film Shah Rukh Khan needs at the moment, but Siddharth Anand has to drastically change the formula of penning his scripts and focus on the execution as much as style.

SOURCE – KOIMOI

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