I have a confession to make. I watched Pathaan, but was somewhat distracted, as I was watching it at the spectacular Rajmandir Cinema in Jaipur, so I was gawking around a lot. It is one of the most remarkable cinemas in India, and possibly the world.

On the face of it, Pathaan is a spy drama that seemed like a non-stop parade of action scenes in exotic locations in Spain, Moscow and Dubai, cellotaped together. There are terrific fistfights atop a speeding truck, people dangling from ropes from flying planes and a bike chase on a frozen pond. Shah Rukh Khan plays a retired Indian RAW agent Pathaan, who must stop Jim, another former Indian RAW agent, since gone rogue, who wants to destroy India using rakt beej, a small pox virus. In fact, this masala entertainer cleverly and daringly flips all the stereotypes. The hero Pathaan is a patriotic Indian Muslim, played by Shah Rukh Khan. The sexy, Muslim, Pakistani ISI agent Rubina Mohsin, is played by Deepika Padukone, a Hindu. And the villain Jim is not Muslim at all, but possibly a Christian, played by John Abraham—and gulp, he’s Indian, not Pakistani. Full googly. Ab bol, tu kya karega? Upar se, the film is a massive hit (R162 crore gross box office worldwide in 9 days as on February 3, according to boxofficemojo.com; Rs 696 crore gross worldwide, says a Yash Raj Films tweet)—either way, a karara thappad in the face of Islamophobia and those who wrote off Bollywood. Indeed, the three stars are the Amar Akbar Anthony of today.