Alpha
Director: Shiv Rawail
Year: 2026
Duration: 141
minutes
Music: NR
Rating: 7.0
This is the seventh installment in the YRF Spy
Universe; the others being the three Tiger films with Salman Khan, the two
War films with Hrithik Roshan and Pathaan with Shahrukh Khan. Three male
superstars in the Bollywood universe. All of them were big hits until this
one. They go with two females here and that might explain its lack of box
office appeal. Not to me of course. Nothing I enjoy more than females in
action, holding their own and in the mix. There is tons of female ass-kicking
here. What the films all have in common is over the top action, absurd action
choreography, hard core patriotism and heroes that have special skills. Something
short of being a superhero, but close. Oh, and they are all kind of stupid
fun. Leave your brain at the door.
And this one more than most. It has echoes
of Black Widow, La Femme Nikita, Lucy and a hundred other action films. Just
all mushed together for your viewing pleasure. Bollywood action has come
such a long ways in recent years. Gone are those fisticuffs in which each
hit was heard in the next county and you could see that the punch came nowhere
close to hitting the guy. Basically, they have caught up to the rest of the
world and the choreography and shooting of it is more sophisticated using
wires and rapid editing. Though the actors are not trained in martial arts,
they are going through extensive training for roles such as this. Both actresses
did for this film and though you would never confuse them for Yukari Oshima
or Cynthia Rothrock, they fake it pretty well here. The plot is ludicrous,
but here goes.
It begins right after Kargill in 1999. Kargill
was a conflict between India and Pakistani in Kashmir. There are lots of
films about that war and it generally means nationalistic patriotism is on
the menu. Two officers - Colonel Fateh (Bobby Deol) and his friend Colonel
Kaul (Anil Kapoor) look over the many caskets of the fallen troops and swear
to get revenge. They have an experimental drug that they call Alpha that
will create Super Soldiers. They can hold their breath for nine minutes under
water and are faster, stronger. It works until it doesn't and the program
is shut down. But not before Kaul gave it to his wife who had a bad heart
and was pregnant. Mom dies giving birth and Kaul is told that the baby died
as well. But Fateh kidnapped the baby girl to bring up and make a super soldier
of. And gives her the name Sita. He brings her up to be a killing machine.
Played by the terrific Alia Bhatt who takes one tough role after another.
She becomes his personal assassin. Kaul is on the list.
She is all set to kill him when another
woman tries to stop her with skills of her own. It's her twin sister Durga
(Sharvari). There was a second baby. That Kaul kept secret. Now the three
of them need to stop Fateh. Yes, it is corny but plays out nicely. There
are a number of action set pieces in the film. Perhaps too stylish and Matrix
influenced but still enjoyable. A nice cameo from Hrithik Roshan as his character
in the War films. It takes a while before the action kicks in - we have to
wait for Sita to grow up - but then it becomes an action merry-go-round.
But not at all graphic. Alia is great as usual, a very contained performance,
Sharvari is fairly new on the scene but gives the film some sex appeal and
both Kapoor and Deol are veterans of Bollywood. Neither seem to age much
in real life. Must be the dancing.
