[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] It eventually emerged as the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time in India to that point and set records in all major overseas markets.

The news impacts a cancer-ridden Pakistani Army officer, General Qadir, who decides to exact vengeance against India and signs a contract with a private terrorist organisation called Outfit X.

With Colonel Sunil Luthra's permission, Pathaan and his team head to Dubai to stop Outfit X's suspected plans of attacking the President of India.

However, too late they realize that their actual plan was to kidnap two scientists, Dr. Farooqui and Dr. Sahani, who were initially supposed to be part of the President's convoy.

During a debrief back at agency headquarters, Luthra reveals to Pathaan and Nandini that Jim was a former agent and Kabir's former partner, who was awarded the Vir Puraskar for his bravery, his uncle filling in for him to the "posthumous" hunour, after the agency could not find his body when Somalian terrorists kidnapped him and killed his pregnant wife out of vengeance for a ransom deal gone wrong.

Meanwhile, Pathaan is made aware of a codeword, "Raktbeej", in the process, he learns that the dead people in Dubai were ex-agents and their money was transferred from the account of Rubina "Rubai" Mohsin, a Pakistani doctor in Spain.

Following a nightmare about her childhood wherein her father, a doctor, was forcibly tortured to death by the ISI, Rubai reveals that Raktbeej is in Moscow, and they travel to steal it before Jim does.

Pathaan meets Rubai, who reveals that "Raktbeej" is codeword to a mutated smallpox virus, which was forcibly developed by a captive Dr. Sahani under Jim's orders.

During a mid-credits scene harking back to their interaction, Pathaan and Tiger are seen pondering about retiring and suggesting young agents who can replace them, but eventually decide to keep fighting the threats themselves.

[b] Yash Raj Films, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham officially announced Pathaan on 2 March 2022 on their social media accounts, revealing the release date with a first look teaser.

[31][32] Salman Khan was confirmed to make a cameo appearance in November 2020, reprising his role as Avinash Singh Rathore from the Tiger franchise.

[57] The News Minute termed the entire controversy as "shameless misreading for jingoism" and stated that there were five different costumes worn by Padukone in the song and the boycotters are criticising this particular scene which features merely for 20 seconds as it suits their agenda.

[64] On 17 January 2023, during the BJP national executive meeting in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his party workers and leaders to refrain from making unnecessary remarks on films.

[65][66] Despite this, Bajrang Dal activists tore down posters of the film and set them on fire at a cinema hall which was about to screen the movie in Guwahati.

Assam's chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, assured Shah Rukh Khan that his government would maintain the law and order in the state.

The site's critical consensus reads, "A slightly slapdash but still intoxicating blend of occasionally disparate ingredients, Pathaan offers over-the-top action thrills with Bollywood bells and whistles".

[86] Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave the film a rating of 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Shah Rukh Khan's weathered intensity, grizzly charisma and trademark wit lends Pathaan's all-out, devil-may-care antics a sense of purpose that evades mindless acts of mayhem".

[87] Devesh Sharma of Filmfare rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and called it a "visual spectacle" while also opining that the action choreography was "truly out of this world".

[90] Tanisha Bagchi of The Quint gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "If Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff's showdown in War kept you on the edge of your seats, Shah Rukh and John's fistfights and blows are nothing short of whistle-worthy".

[91] Abhimanyu Mathur of DNA India rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and praised the performances and score but termed some of the action scenes as "over-the-top and unbelievable".

[92] Ritika Handoo of Zee News rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and mentioned, "There is not even a single dull moment in this YRF actioner.

[94] Pooja Biraia Jaiswal of The Week rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Pathaan is a dishoom-dishoom joy ride between Khan and his perfectly beefed-up antagonist Abraham.

[97] Sajesh Mohan of Onmanorama stated that "Siddharth Anand's Pathaan lays out a perfect red-carpet entry for Shah Rukh Khan into the YRF Spy Universe with its right formula of high-octane death and logic-defying action sequences seasoned with desh bhakti (patriotism) and qurbani (sacrifice).

[99] Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in wrote, "The film's greatest blaster is its hero itself, parleying his well-oiled impishness, time-tested charm and mesmeric screen presence for a cheesy but also entertaining save-the-nation exercise".

[100] Cath Clarke of The Guardian rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote, "This enjoyable high-octane action spy movie from India is possibly the most fun you can currently have at the cinema.

Still, the cheers kept coming; the loudest whoop of all when Salman Khan made an entrance as Tiger, a hero from an earlier movie in the series".

[101] Conversely, Simon Abrams of TheWrap dismissed it as "an amateurish Indian super-spy thriller that's never as well-executed as it is conceptually goofy and politically dubious".

[102] Owen Gleiberman of Variety was similarly not impressed, terming the film a "a sprawling, mountainous tangle of pulp that stacks one genre on top of the next with an arbitrary verve", but picked up the "iconic quality of its stars" Khan and Abraham for praise.

[103] Timon Singh of Empire summarised, "Pathaan delivers everything that an Indian blockbuster should: a guaranteed box office draw with Khan, exotic locales, crowd-pleasing cameos, stunning dance numbers and gravity-defying stunts that make the Fast and Furious franchise look restrained.

[15] Box Office India reported that by grossing around US$31 million in its first eight days, it became the highest-grossing Hindi film in overseas, excluding China (where it did not release).