Prathyush Parasuraman
It is not that Khan, the patron saint of urban sexuality, has never performed or is incapable of performing loneliness. He has, arguably, acted out the finest specimen of it in ‘Safar’ from Jab Harry Met Sejal.
I would urge you to turn your eyes toward Fan and the creepy films of the Nineties when he would tattoo the name of his lover with a knife in blood.
But for an action star it is this loneliness, this intensity that gives the hero his teeth. Charm is mere lubricant, which, incidentally, Khan endorses as part of the Jawan.
He has put forth the figure of a charming, bumbling hero, continuing a thread in his filmography as he swaps genres. In Jawan, it is particularly jarring. Past trauma is a mere ornament. promotions.
With clear ethical foundations, hazier political implications, he cuts a more glamorous, comforting figure, and for better or worse, this is the heroism of our times.