The public seems to have gone mad with excitement. The scenes in single-screen cinemas and multiplexes during shows of Pathaan are to be seen to be believed. Not only are people clapping, applauding, screaming and shouting in scenes of the film but they are on their feet in the Jhoome Pathaan song which comes in the fag end of the spy thriller. And this is happening not in one, two or ten cinemas, but in hundreds of cinemas across the length and breadth of the country. Frankly, one has never witnessed this kind of response inside cinema halls pan-India for any film in the past.
Several factors have led to this kind of euphoria. Of course, the first and foremost reason for this behaviour of the audience from North to South and East to West is that they have loved the film and the characters of Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone. Secondly, the dialogues, songs and dances of Pathaan are becoming a rage. Thirdly, the public seems to be showering all its love on the film because of the sympathy wave in favour of Shah Rukh after the film was surrounded in an ugly controversy relating to the saffron-coloured swim suit of Deepika in the Besharam rang song.
Looking to the unprecedented response to the Siddharth Anand film, it would not be incorrect to say that Pathaan is not just a film, it has become a celebration of sorts, at least initially till the euphoria settles down.