The Indian audience was happy to watch old stars come back to rock the box office and help Bollywood run out of business. This includes movies from Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Sunny Deol respectively that served as their comeback ventures. Among all these movies Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathan’ and Sunny Deol’s ‘Gadar 2’ have made the most impact at the box office in this year. However, in a massive turn of box office calculations, ‘Gadar 2’ has been able to beat the SRK starrer due to several reasons.

‘Gadar 2’ Proves That Gutsy Patriotism Can Make an Indian Movie a Success

After its release on August 2023, ‘Gadar 2’ has been able to cash more than Rs. 524 crores in September in India, as estimated by experts associated with calculating at the box office. This has been more than what the Shah Rukh Khan movie ‘Pathan’ was able to make within one month of its release. Although many people are of the opinion that this was the result of the nostalgia that this film reminded its audience of especially regarding the first ‘Gadar’ movie, several people are also saying that its success is attributed to the patriotic themes that it has and its open criticism against Pakistan. Intrigued by this, I decided to check out the movie myself to unearth what is so special about it.

When I started watching the movie in the cinema hall, I was very impressed by its presentation. I felt very nostalgic after hearing the remake of certain songs that were sung by Udit Narayan in the first ‘Gadar’ movie, especially, the ‘Main Nikla Gaddi Leke’ song. The songs and Sunny Deol’s return as Tara Singh with Ameesha Patel’s character Sakina reminded me of my school days when the first ‘Gadar’ movie was a huge success. It reminded me of the time when my parents took me to the local cinema hall to watch that movie. The performance by Manish Wadhwa as a Pakistani army general with a grudge against Tara Singh was also very impressive. And who would have thought that this movie would also show a slight glimpse of the late Amrish Puri’s character of ‘Ashraf Ali’ and that too by using CGI? The action sequences were unbelievable and probably not realistic at all but these scenes made me remember about Sunny Deol’s powerful screen presence and intimidating stature that everyone used to love during the 90s and early 2000s.

However, the thing that impressed me the most about this movie was its patriotic theme. The movie does not outright portray the Pakistani people as evil and against India but does focus on the issue of anti-India sentiments that are spread by the Pakistani government. Unlike several other Bollywood movies, such as the Salman Khan starrer, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ where the Pakistani government is shown to be benevolent, this one exposes the reality of the people who are in the topmost positions of that nation. I can clearly understand now why some Pakistanis were so triggered on getting the movie banned in their country after the movie was released. However, I feel that people chose to watch ‘Gadar 2’ more than ‘Pathan’ because of the patriotic sentiments that the movie addresses.

There have been many controversies regarding ‘Pathan’ starting from Deepika Padukone’s saffron swimsuit to the movie showing her character who is an ISI agent helping SRK’s character who is a RAW agent. Some people alleged that the movie is appeasing Pakistan in such ways. Although I disagree with such statements since these are all made-up allegations by haters and trolls, I have to admit that it is a rare sight nowadays to see a Bollywood film that can address the anti-India sentiments of the Pakistani government without any fear of failure at the international box office. How ‘Gadar 2’ tells the story of an Indian man who is out to fight the entire Pakistani army to save his son at the same time when the ‘Crush India movement’ was going on during 1971 is a brave move by director Anil Sharma.

There have been certain criticisms made against this movie, one of which was that it felt like a B-grade Bhojpuri film to many people. However, I disagree with this statement because of the excellent cinematography and the impactful storyline which focuses on telling a sensible tale. One can understand this if they ignore the unrealistic action scenes for a few seconds.  It was refreshing to see Sunny Deol back in his old form from the 90s and that too at a time when it has become rare for Bollywood to show tough and brave male characters. In fact, after watching this movie I believe that its success is attributed to bold patriotic themes and Sunny Deol’s powerful acting as well as the feeling of nostalgia which will take back its viewers to the late 90s.

My Final Thoughts about This Movie

After being part of the thrilling adventure with ‘Tara Singh’ in ‘Gadar 2’ I think that it is time for Bollywood to understand what the Indian audience wants to see at the cinema halls. Most Bollywood producers and directors must first focus on satisfying the Indian audience instead of focusing too much on success in the international market. I believe that other directors should learn from Anil Sharma who did not chicken out from calling out the hatred of the Pakistani government toward India and still did not face failure at the box office. The box office collections of this movie which will soon reach that of Pathan show that no matter whatever controversies come in the way of artistic expressions of serious issues; they do not matter as long as the majority of the audience is satisfied.