Trauma, Anger and Destruction: Pathaan Review
I was curious to watch this movie that is raking in crores and trending on TikTok endlessly. Pathaan is being touted as one of the best action films to come out of Bollywood to date.
When I watched it, I was struck by how polished it felt – sure it had it’s share of glamour, action, technology, and plot – but the whole thing was nicely melded together with some decent dialogues, seasoned actors and some comedy too.
Of course, with my trauma antennae always alert, I picked up the villain, Jim’s (played by John Abraham) wrath and linked it to his past traumatizing experience. Spoiler alerts start here. Jim, as an Indian soldier, when captured by the enemy, was tortured, and then made to watch his very pregnant wife’s murder right in front of him. His anger was directed at the Indian army, which refused to save his family, opting instead to deny any involvement in Jim’s covert mission.
Jim’s anger drives him to become a mercenary for hire, unleashing havoc on whomever the highest bidder would like. As a result, in the film he takes on a mission to destroy a prominent Indian city. He has opportunities to gloat in front of his former superior officer and team, citing his freedom from their structures and his wealth as motivations, but his true motivation is revenge.
While Jim meets his demise through the protagonist, Pathaan (played by a very chiseled Shah Rukh Khan), his character gives me a lot of pause. Anger, when unprocessed, can fuel revenge and destruction. Jim’s actions are not dissimilar to those of many mass shooting perpetrators, serial killers, and rapists. All such criminals are known to have suffered severe abuse and/or trauma, and to be driven by their negative emotions to kill or otherwise harm innocent people. Like any other negative emotion, anger needs to be accepted and processed mindfully and with love.
If anger interests you, check out this recently released volume, From Anger to Love, published by the Heartfulness Education Trust; it includes a chapter I wrote about anger as trauma’s messenger.
