“Jahan woh hai wahan se koi agent wapas nahi ataa,” the R&AW chief of India says into her phone in a scene from Tiger 3. She’s of course talking about our protagonist, the slow-talking but typically cocky Tiger. On the prowl in an unnamed, arid desert, Tiger is stalking a former friend. The odds for his mission have been talked up and so he surveys from a distance, enters the frame with the trademark scarf and escapes with a grin. It’s an ambitious sequence, a bike chase captured through sliding cameras. It’s impressive as a material accomplishment, promising as a token of this spy universe’s trajectory but also indicative of the work needed to embellish flashy spectacles with emotional stakes. To which effect Tiger 3 offers scale, a compelling visual manual for Hindi cinema’s own spy universe but is unnecessarily self-serious and draggy when it need not have been. It’s still explosive in a terse, unsubtle way however that maybe fits the ageing actor at its helm.
Tiger and Zoya are now parents to a son they lazily refer to as ‘Junior’. While on a rescue op, Tiger is tipped off to Zoya’s duplicity, or in this case, a return to her ISI roots. Her strained loyalty, the film suggests, might become the focus of a narrative – her backstory is the opening sequence – that seems on the cusp of exploring something unique before abandoning it outright. The complexity of a relationship tied across stately borderlines, hints at the intimate edge that the film’s trailer suggested, until things take a turn for the predictably dour. It’s the same old good-guys-vs-a-really-bad-guy model, the other end of which is ably carried by the menacing, understated Emraan Hashmi as Aatish Rehman.
Rehman is a former ISI bigwig, intent on usurping the calls for peace emanating from both of sides the border. Within the larger world of a fictional spy universe, YRF continues to toast imaginary resolutions for peace. Some of them are as prosaic as a sitting Pakistani Prime Minister calling for the voluntary reduction of defence budgets on either side of the border, some of it is as bullishly poetic as nuptials between agents from warring intelligence agencies. It’s a continuing narrative that the studio, admirably, doubles down on with Tiger 3. But to every romantic ideal spurred by the big-hearted evocations of Tiger 3, Rehman serves as the periodic reminder that peace may well remain a fantasy. To keep the conflict from our homes, India needs a Tiger as much as Pakistan needs a Zoya. Lest, the two fall for each other, this battle seems to suffer from its own puzzling fatigue, inanity and listlessness at times.
Since this is the third film of a franchise, in-jokes and returning characters offer a sense of continuity and comfort. Kumud Mishra is as dependable as always and so are the returning team members who become colourful backdrops to Salman’s waning masculine energy. The star looks aged and though he manages to just about service close combat sequences with adrenaline, everything around him feels like a decoy to his diminished agility. Shah Rukh Khan, comparatively, looked youthful and light-footed in Pathaan. To his credit, Salman also essays a role somewhat outlined by middle-age, familial responsibilities. This is the action hero wrapped in conservative, Indian modesty, at arm’s length from the sassy, erotic overtures of Pathaan.
Tiger 3 is fairly twisty but also rushed despite its long runtime. People are chalked off in haste, locations and scenery altered so chaotically, not a lot of it actually sticks in the mind. Director Maneesh Sharma puts together likeable set-pieces and that snooty quality of a globetrotting phenomenon, but few of these feel original. The biggest letdown here, though, is the underwhelming cameo that simply struggles to recreate the hysteria around the iconic train sequence from Pathaan. The other Khan arrives, but without the unparalleled commotion, or even the slickness of Salman’s show-stopping appearance in the former. “Jahan dimag se kaam chal jaaye wahan haath paer chalane ki zarurat nahi hai,” Shah Rukh's Pathaan tells Tiger, which feels sagely advice coming from a man who has returned to rule Hindi cinema this year.
Tiger 3 isn’t the worst spy film you’ll see but it is a tad askew in its geometry, and self-serious to the point of tedium at times. The first half feels sluggish, a bit incoherent and routinely ditches its own promise. The second picks up the wretched pace and delivers on the promise of a big-bugdet actioner as opposed to the deeply intimate exfoliation of a complicated cross-border relationship. To her credit, Katrika Kaif increasingly looks like an action star, efficient in her movements, unwieldy still as a vessel for emotion. Salman does a lot of talking and some of the fighting, with grumpiness invariably oozing out of his craggy skin. He can no longer inject energy into a frame, but he carries this air of passivity that might translate as his method. It is oddly fascinating; so much so that even the first mission he performs in Tiger 3 is unapologetically called ‘Mission Timepass’. It’s both a warning and a suggestion.
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