The Tiger series started with Kabir Khan helming them and it was like a breath of fresh air for YRF who generally are seen to follow trends but never create anything new in terms of storytelling or genre. While the first part was a combination of docu-fiction from Kabir plus Bollywood pulp, it had the right amount of wit, romance, and action to make audiences hooked to it.
Then came the second part (Tiger Zinda Hai) , which I feel was the best, as it upped the ante in terms of emotion and action and gave Katrina Kaif a space which was not even visible in the first part. I was eager to watch the third part considering that I enjoyed the first two parts purely as pulp and was keen to see how Maneesh Sharma brings something new to the table.
Considering this is the first genuine film in the so called YRF Spy universe, the prologue was interesting and it sets up the tone for the film. What follows is an interesting sort of marital discord or suspicion in a spy thriller. This film’s best writing is seen for the first 30 minutes and then somehow the magic is not maintained. I would love to see such a tango between a husband and wife.
The action sequences are entertaining, the best one do not feature Salman but Katrina in a Turkish hamam. Tiger 3 also shows how Bollywood has moved on, there are no songs in the movie, apart from one which is also used to move narrative compared to the first part where songs were a must. The movie also sticks to its genre and it kind of becomes tiring for the audience as I missed the wit and banter of the first two parts.
Spoiler Alert Starts
Now coming to the cameo-
The Shah Rukh Khan cameo does not work at all, one reason being he does not have a loyal fan following like Salman and his screen presence is lacking. It may be because we are used to seeing Salman as Tiger so the charisma of character and star was there. Pathaan is just one film old, and people who enjoyed it were experiencing it as SRK’s comeback and not the character.
Moreover, the situation here is the same as that of Pathaan so it adds to drudgery and Tiger is a way bigger character than Pathaan in minds of viewers. Sadly, all jokes fall flat right from homage to Sholay to Karan Arjun in this scene. And the movie’s weakest action sequence is this rescue scene.
End of Spoiler Alert
Salman does what is required of him, and it works. The film does not require heavy duty acting. Emraan Hashmi as the central antagonist is given a raw deal and I wish the character was written more deeply. Katrina deserves her stand alone film as Zoya.
My major problem with the film is that while the first half is personal for both Tiger and Zoya, the second half is all about saving Pakistan and their democracy. There in lies the problem, the country has not seen a democratically elected government serving the full 5 years term since the formation of the country. Pakistanis do not care about democracy.
The stake for Indian audiences is bare minimum since there is no harm to India. It is like watching a James Bond movie where he saves the Russian Communist regime instead of handling threats which the UK is facing.
Also considering that YRF do not read or have this rose-tinted notion of Pakistan, in the movie it is implied only rogue ISI is against India, when even an uneducated Indian knows that Pakistan’s identity is based on annihilating Indians and India.
All said and done Tiger 3 is one of better masala movies of this year, we hardly had any this year.
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