Wooo! This looks GOOD! Not just good because I like SRK, but good because it promises a different dark complex kind of plot, one you can’t possibly figure out just from the teaser. But I’m still gonna try!
Atlee is a southern director, which means he comes from a world where stars are even more important than they are in Hindi films. Scripts are often written to give stars 2-3-4 roles to play in one movie (secret twins, father-son, or just time jump personality changes). Atlee in particular likes doing dark twisted plots that bring in multiple roles through time jumps and secret twins and crazy stuff like that.
This is a FABULOUS role for SRK, that’s what the teaser is giving us. He’s a young hero soldier! He’s dancing in the street! He’s wearing a mask! He’s threatening a train full of people! He’s training female commandos! He’s a mummy? Come see this movie if you want to see how one person is all of these things, and enjoy one actor playing all of these roles.
On top of all the cool Shahrukh stuff, there’s also Nayanthara in a power suit striding around, Deepika apparently doing a cameo winning a wrestling match against SRK, and of course the team of female commandos. This weirdly looks like Chak De to me? In that SRK may not get a real romance of his own, but instead mentor in a totally non-romantic way.
Atlee’s last film Bigil is, I suspect, what made Shahrukh interested in working with him. In that film, (SPOILERS for Bigil!!!!), the actor Vijay plays his middle-aged gangster king father, a young virtious romantic soccer player, and an older new gangster king replacing his father. Each role has a distinctive look, vocal structure, etc. But the other part of this is the plot. The romance is taken as a given, Nayanthara is a strong independent mature person who is committed to Vijay and helps him on his path. The “plot” is Vijay, soccer player turned gangster, trying to coach an all female team to national success.
That’s what I am getting from this trailer. Shahrukh is going to go on a crazy character journey that will be super fun for him to play. There will either be no romance, or it will be a non-romantic romance, just an equal female partner in his journey. And he is going to mentor a group of young women and that will be his biggest relationship story.
Plotwise, I’m gonna guess maybe he had a big trauma as a soldier which made him decide to train young woman to be able to defend themselves and go rogue?
Oh, one final Atlee thing!!!! Because he comes from the Tamil industry, he is used to doing local rather than national stories. That female soccer team in Bigil, they wanted to represent Tamil Nadu and win the nationals. His other films have dealt with corrupt for profit healthcare and violent petty politicians. So I am expecting that the Big Bad in this film will be something similar, graft in orphanages or human trafficking or something like that. Love it, love anything that’s not stupid jingoistic stuff.
dontcallitbollywood 
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Is it okay to say I am cautiously optimistic about this? Your background on Atlee helped a LOT, so thank you!!! I am going to try to watch Bigil before this comes out.
On to the teaser, I love Chak De, and have faith in ShahRukh letting the women shine when needed. Chak de is a perfect example. He was muted, he was clearly the star vehicle but the girls were given the space they needed to shine. But given what you have said about the emphasis on the star, my fear is the Mission Mangal syndrome. One really really special person and HIS special team. And we all can agree what a horrible terrible mess Mission Mangal was. All because of the emphasis on the wrong person and as you so aptly out it, the Dunning-Kruger effect! A movie with amazing female actors that should have easily been a DICB favorite became a huge disappointment. Does that make sense?
Having said that, I am going to have faith and hope that is not the case because Chak De was wonderful and to see a bunch of women in action roles kicking ass sounds incredible and basically like a dream come true. So, I am hoping this movie figures out the right balance and makes us all very happy!
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I wouldn’t get my hopes up on that front. I mean the film’s named after his character unlike Chak De or Mission Mangal. And there’s literally a song paying tribute to SRK in the trailer. I hope they all have substantial roles because I think these are all actresses who won’t choose to do disposable roles. But I have a feeling everything will be in service to his character.
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I think you are right on both aspects. It is likely homage to SRK but also, these actresses wouldn’t agree to play these roles unless they were interesting. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I am excited to watch Bigli before this comes out and see what I think.
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Yes, watch Bigil! It’s definitely star-slanted in a way similar to but different from Mission Mangal. Everything has to happen because our hero is just so AWESOME, but it’s not like the women aren’t awesome, it’s that he is supernaturally amazingly awesome in an over the top Star Performance kind of way. Like, remember in Hum Hain Rahe Pyar Ke? Aamir was the best at running a shirt factory, but that didn’t take anything away from the women being good at their jobs.
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I will definitely watch Bigil and let you know my thoughts. I love women-oriented sports movies, so it is right up my ally.
I think I get what you are trying to say when you describe Atlee’s movies. I think I see it less like the shirt factory women in Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke because despite my love for that movie, the factory women were not big named actresses or the focus. I think I see it more like old Amitabh movies where women like Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi still had a ton of agency, fought along-side the hero, and just were overall awesome but Amitabh was still the main attraction.
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I think the faith in SRK will pull through here. He’s more likely to choose a script specifically because it empowers women and gives them good and interesting roles. And I’m sure that’s on his mind even more these days with Suhana on the verge of joining the industry.
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Yes! Especially if he okayed casting Nayanthara, a big name and mature actress. He’s gonna want her to be the main antagonist probably.
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I wish the whole movie would be the last Shah Rukh, with the bald head and salty beard dancing on the train. I really liked THAT Shah Rukh.
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Maybe it will be! Maybe all the other Shahrukh’s will be taken care of in a 10 minute flashback!
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This trailer was weird and awesome and definitely has me more intrigued than I was with the trailer. I haven’t seen any of the films by this director, but I wonder if this plot isn’t pretty close to what you describe in Bigil actually?
I really liked that moment on the train at then end. SRK being weird and quirky in a cool way could be a great new thing for him.
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He’s made 3 big hit movies, two of them had a “hero goes through trauma and comes out other side a different person” plot, and one of them had a “surprise! You thought it was one person changed by trauma, but actually TWINS!” plot. So I am pretty sure he’s gonna have SRK go through some big thing that makes him turn dark, and then have him mentor young women. Actually, two out of his other three films also had young women mentorship, in Bigil it was a soccer team and in Theri he had a daughter.
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I heard somewhere that SRK plays father and son in Jawan. Don’t know if it’s true
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Ooooo, could be! Atlee’s done that in two other movies as a way to give the hero a double role.
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So it’s pretty much given that SRK is playing more than one role? I saw the line ‘when I become a villain..’, and thought ‘but are you?’ because he’s made it clear he’s not going to play a pure villain anymore. If it’s multiple roles, there is at least a possibility one of them is a villain. Haven’t seen any Atlee film but read that he has a pattern of using a female character’s death as a tragic backstory for the hero so I’m guessing Deepika’s playing that. However long she’s in it for, it’ll be worth it just to see her body slamming SRK. I’m very excited to see Nayanthara because she comes across as mature, basically the opposite of an ingenue and I want to see that kind of energy opposite SRK. Can anyone recommend any of her movies to watch? We know Sanya and Priyamani are also in it right? Not sure if Priyamani is only in a dance number but it’ll be fun seeing them after Chennai Express.
I’ve wanted to see SRK doing many different roles but never imagined him being bald in any of them, but he’s working it I think? The dance at the end was the best part for me. The song is from Bees Saal Baad but is there any significance of that to the plot? It is a revenge thriller with ghostly elements, could be a hint!
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You got me thinking about Atlee killing people off! I don’t think he actually does have a pattern of female death. It’s more just Massive Death of EVERYONE. One movie, it was his wife plus his parents. Another movie, both parents and a baby, another movie the Dad. So I think we can count on someone close to the hero dying and that being his motivation to change everything about his life, but no one is safe, could be anyone he is close to. Heck, maybe Salman will show up in a surprise cameo as his best friend, and then be brutally tortured and die!
Also in Atlee films, he keeps you guessing with the double roles. Sometimes it’s “this guy is good, this guy is bad, oh wait they are the same guy and the bad guy actually had reasons to be bad and is good”. That’s what I’m guessing for this one, he gets a bad name and goes rogue but is still “good”.
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For Nayanthara you can try Atlee’s debut movie Raja Rani. It’s a very long romcom/romantic drama and is very different from his action hero worshippy Vijay movies which he made later but it was a huge turning point for Nayanthara’s career. You can also try Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (my personal favorite) and Kolaamavu Kokila
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Thank you! I’ll try to find them.
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I’m just so excited. I have no words. Thanks for the Atlee context. I also got the vibe of women commando training parallel with Chak De.
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Pretty sure I’m going to like this one more than Pathaan 🙂. Liking the crazy twisty plot vibes and I’m always a sucker for a band of women beating down bad guys.
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Emily! I don’t mean to hijack this comment, but did you watch American Born Chinese with your kids yet? It’s a newish Disney show with Michelle Yeoh. I don’t know what I think of the show yet but adore Michelle’s character in it!
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I saw bits and pieces of it as my 10yo watched it. Here’s his review: he liked the show and the book equally but they were different. They were both well written. The characters of Jin and Wei Chen in the show were friendlier and more likeable than in the book. Also, the show changed the ending. He liked Michelle Yeoh’s character, she was the most powerful but she wasn’t supposed to fight.
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Thank you so much for the review. I haven’t read the book but now I want to. I agree with him on everything so far. Jin and Wei Cheng are ridiculously charming and very likable. I found Jin to be really funny as well. The actor has great comedic timing.
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But bald?
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Bald and skinny! There was lots of fire, maybe his hair got burned off.
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This feels like Chak De on steroids. I thought it was gonna be another Pathaan but it’s clearly not and my excitement for it increased like crazy. Can’t wait. And thanks for the Atlee breakdown! I like knowing a little bit about the people involved just so I have somewhat an idea of their style and what to expect.
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Oh yeah, Atlee is NUTS! In the best way. Really leans into the impossible coincidences and superpowered heroes and elaborate plots.
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I am extremely excited about this and I would like to announce: YOU GUYS. PATHAAN IS RELEASING IN JAPAN ON SEPTEMBER 1. This is during my vacation so I can go anywhere in Japan to see it.
So, I’ll be able to finally see Pathaan while you all are seeing Jawan!
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
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