Tiger Zinda Hai: Feminine, fierce and fatal, Katrina’s Zoya is the real deal in the movie

SPOILERS ALERT!

I never thought a day would come when I would be sitting back to write a whole blog dedicated to Katrina Kaif’s acting prowess, which has been painfully limited. Even after numerous accolades, including the coveted Smita Patil award, Katrina’s acting skills have so far been negligible, except for a few roles where she managed to hold her niche.

Looks like that is going to change. Here I am, already in awe of her, and that opinion has been changed because of one movie.

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Not much of a Salman fan, I went to watch his latest offering ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’, just to catch the quintessential ‘Bhai’ elements and cheer along, with my friends and the other fans present in the vicinity. But something which I had not anticipated happened instead. After the movie, what I took away with me was the performance of Katrina Kaif as Zoya, someone who I had considered nothing more than hero’s arm candy in a movie full of stardom, muscle power and no logic, courtesy most of her previous cinematic outings.

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Proving everyone wrong, she totally blew everyone away. And why not? After all it is really difficult to even think of taking the seat away from Salman Khan from a movie dedicated solely to his star power. But the lady managed the same smoothly. Right from the opening sequence when her inner agent comes alive in a grocery store to the last one when she single-handedly takes on the terrorists, Katrina is a treat to watch.

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How many actresses can boast of having action sequences dedicated solely to them? Further, how many can boast of pulling them off with panache? Very few. And now, we can count Katrina amongst them. If Tiger gets his own movie as a RAW agent, Katrina as Zoya the ISI agent is no less, and in no way undermined in front of Salman. In fact, many times she is shown to save their skins. Well, that’s woman empowerment, or in the words of Paresh Rawal’s character, “Yeh khatarnaak aurat bhabhi hain?”

Oh yeah, you go woman!

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We see various facets of Katrina in the movie and she manages to shine in every frame. So much so, that you look forward to her sequences. Be it the time when she is angry at her husband for having forgotten their anniversary, or when she is happy as he gives her a surprise, to the time she arrives as an agent, or even when her fierce motherly instincts come alive to save the child who had been brainwashed to kill himself and countless others, Katrina is a treat to watch.

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This is not the first time we have loved a female character in a Salman Khan movie, which has the presence of Bhai to please his fans, in every sequence. Last year’s ‘Sultan’ too had Anushka Sharma as Aarfa who despite the criticism of her cliched choice of choosing motherhood over her career, stood by her stance. This was a character that made everyone stand up and notice an actress in a Salman Khan movie.

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Mere words will do no justice to Katrina’s Zoya. Watch the movie and whether or not you retain the muscle action of Salman or even the heavily photoshopped shirtless body, you will come home with Zoya, the ISI agent who is as fierce as she is feminine, as loving as she is destructive. Take a bow.

And yes, after all this when you are recuperating from the mind blowing stunts she has pulled off, you get her shaking her booty like a glamorous diva, in ‘Swag Se Swagat’.

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Looks like she has arrived, finally. She does have a long way to go, but it’s a start, it’s a start.

Kadambari Srivastava

Grammar Nazi, word weaver, dreamer, bibliophile, technophile, caffeine addict, foodie, shuttling shopaholic! Mash it in a Bollywood recipe and voila! Pushpa, you’ve got her!