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It is termed the first film in the YRF Spy Universe to feature two women. Alia Bhatt is Sita, daughter to Janaki (Dia Mirza) and R&AW chief, Colonel Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor), who we had seen in War 2. The film mixes age-old templates with a story that can only be described as a fantasy, for everything is so unreal and not just larger-than-life but gigantic compared to real life.
First, there is Vikrant’s colleague, Fateh Singh Lakhawat (Bobby Deol), who addresses him as ‘Guruji’ and he is among the key believers in a serum, Alpha, developed by Dr. John Varghese (Divyendu Bhattacharya) that can make any human being almost a superhuman. The idea is to make our soldiers superhuman as the opening scene shows Vikrant and Fateh as the only survivors from their regiment after Kargil.
Vikrant secretly injects his wife, who suffers from a congenital heart condition, with the serum, and later it is found that in the present stage of development, Alpha proves fatal. Just as the human experiments (soldiers) perish, Janaki delivers a stillborn baby but dies. Alpha is shut down and Fateh is demoted and sent to remote Cherrapunji in Meghalaya for a non-combat job.
But the truth is that Fateh Singh has actually stowed Sita away and keeps experimenting with her successfully, while pretending to be a caring but resolute father. He secretly wants to make her a killing machine. This he does through a research facility he has built with finance in Rajasthan. Something happens and Sita does become one. And she destroys the facility that Fateh has built for Alpha’s development.
Meanwhile, a nurse at the hospital in which Janaki was admitted for delivery has revealed to Vikrant that another twin was born after Sita, and she is named Durga by Vikrant as he comes to know that Fateh took Sita away. Durga (Sharvari) is being raised in Spain. As per a single line in the film, Vikrant has “trained” Durga fully as a soldier despite that ‘normal’ life. And, dear viewer, you are NOT supposed to ask, “How on earth did he do that??????” And also, “Why did he not accost Fateh straight off????????
From here begins a drama that can only be term the epitome of being ultra-fanciful: the Telugu fantasy Naagbandhamreviewed last week was less implausible! Durga comes to India even as Fateh now wants to kill Sita and use her dead body (!!!!!!!….) to study Alpha’s effect. And Sita wants to kill Vikrant, as per Fateh’s mandate.
In some aspects, Sita is as devoid of positive emotions as a robot. Things change when she comes to kill Vikrant, has a long combat with Durga, then comes to know the truth. Vikrant instructs both of them to escape to a faraway safe house, which they do DDLJ style, having fun on the way. The “safehouse” is in Ladakh where they meet a saint-like monk who turns out to be ace agent Kabir (Hrithik Roshan of the War franchise).
Meanwhile, we see the Dhurandhar effect on the script: a strict anti-Pakistani slant, unlike the YRF template that began with Veer-Zaara and permeated into the Spy Universe! For guess who is a Pakistani working against India who has to be butchered in a long and gory fight with Sita? In-between interval-point and the end, Alpha extends illogic to extravagant proportions.
Through a controlled scale (in the action, locations and general happenings) as even No.1 stars like Alia Bhatt are not Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan in their audience-pulling power, the makers keep the production values still very good, the content this time is not as weak as War 2 and, to a point, Tiger 3, but it so still not good enough: the bar now has been set too high with a recent franchise that has demonstrated, in a flash, that spy dramas need international caliber, not international locations alone!
Alia Bhatt and Sharvari Wagh do their very best, Bhatt showing her cold side dexterously. Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol are two actors who are now becoming highly, highly repetitious (note the ‘adjective’ irony in this sentence!) Anil is now always in the baleful actioner mode of Subedaar and 24, something that started off in recent times with Fighter(2024).
Bobby Deol is now a regular ‘baddie’ and his efforts though praiseworthy, are already wearing thin. Just as every day is not a Sunday, every film is not Animal. Sharvari has a straight and ebullient role and does well.
The music is pathetic, and the background score by Sanchit and Ankit Balhara ‘scores’ only in decibels. Writers Shridhar Raghavan and Soumil Shukla do the best they possibly can from this audaciously outlandish story credited to Uday Chopra, while Ishita Moitra, as always, scores in her dialogues. Technically, the film is upbeat but, as said before, we see the subtly-imposed constraints.
For director Shiv Rawail, this is a steep, steep comedown from his debut series under the same banner, The Railway Men. We saw an incisively real story there, we see something 180 degrees opposite here.
Rating: **1/2
Yash Raj Films’ Alpha Produced by: Aditya Chopra Directed by: Shiv Rawail Written by: Uday Chopra, Soumil Shukla, Shridhar Raghavan & Ishita Moitra Music: Rohansh & Abeer Pandit Starring: Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Divyendu Bhattacharya, Shubhi Mehta Sp. App.: Hrithik Roshan & Dia Mirza.
