‘Pathaan … Zinda hai’: Masculinity, ageing and the militarized masala action film

Abstract

This short article examines the ways in which Pathaan, with its glorious invocation of the star-text in the title, explores the shifting relationship between masculinity, the imperial-militaristic Hollywood action genre and the idea of nation. This article argues that the filmic narrative, its paratexts and Pathaan/Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), working within the conventions of a Hollywood-inflected masala action genre, reconfigure an ageing, kintsugi action-hero masculinity. While the agentic, aestheticized, muscular, male body anchors the film, its emphasis on brokenness – emotional, psychological and physical – drives the film’s deliberate reshaping of current Hindutva narratives of the nation to a secular neo-liberal mode.