‘Jawan’ is being called a ‘mass movie’ – but what does this term really mean?

Caution: Spoilers ahead about Jawan.

Since Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan was released on Thursday, it has already totted up huge box-office earnings. The vigilante drama stars Khan alongside Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi and Deepika Padukone in a cameo. Jawan’s director, Atlee, has previously directed four movies in Tamil, which include the hits Theri (2016), Mersal (2017) and Bigil (2019), all starring Vijay.

Jawan’s success is being attributed to its status as a “mass entertainer”. This phrase is usually associated with Tamil and Telugu cinema. The feeling among trade analysts is that the Hindi film industry, which has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, needs the “mass movie” if it has to continue to attract audiences and keep A-list stars in circulation. But what is this mass movie, and how is it different from the “masala movie”, which is what we call the all-purpose entertainer? Another way of asking the question is, what distinguishes Jawan from Khan’s previous hit this year, Pathaan?

For answers, we turned to Baradwaj Rangan, the Chennai-based critic who is editor-in-chief at the website Galatta Plus. Rangan began his review of Jawan by saying: “In the same year, Shah Rukh Khan gave us a masala movie with Pathaan and a ‘mass’ movie with Jawan.”

In an interview with Scroll, Rangan deconstructed the mass movie, analysed filmmaking conventions in Hindi...

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