Alpha Movie Review

Since 2012, a total of six films have been released in the ‘YRF Spy Universe’ franchise. The first four films, Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, War & Pathaan, were super successful at the box office and helped to build a fandom for the Spy Universe. Unfortunately, the last two films in the franchise, Tiger 3 and War 2, ended up as duds and dented the prospects of the upcoming films. At a time when a blockbuster success is the need of the hour to reclaim the franchise’s brand value, Yash Raj Films, announced, Alpha, the first film in the franchise with two women in the lead roles. Alia Bhatt and Sharvari, played the lead roles in the film. After getting postponed a couple of times in the last few months, the film was finally released in theatres today. Did Alpha instil life into a sinking franchise? Did, Alia Bhatt and Sharvari, help the YRF Spy Universe’s lost glory? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Due to an unfortunate incident, Sita(Alia Bhatt) and Durga(Sharvari), the twin sisters, get separated, at a hospital right after their birth. The father(Anil Kapoor) was made to believe that his elder daughter is dead. What was the unfortunate incident that made the twins get separated? What exactly is ‘Alpha’ serum? Why is Fateh Singh Lakhawat(Bobby Deol) hell-bent on getting the serum developed? What exactly does Alpha serum do when it is injected into the bodies of the army soldiers? What is the real identity of Fateh Singh Lakhawat? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Alia Bhatt’s screen presence and performance are the only saving graces in this forgettable film. She looked good, performed well and even looked like a live wire during the action sequences. Sharvari looked good but there is not much to talk about her performance. She has improved her acting skills a lot if she’s serious about a career as an actor.

Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, and even the usually very reliable, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, delivered terrible performances. Not just these three actors, almost all the actors in the film looked out of place and uninterested.

Technicalities:

Alpha is one of those very rare films where almost every technical department, came up with a bland output. There’s not much the technicians can do when the script was written badly. Everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong for the film at the writing table itself. So, the entire blame should go to the writing team and the director but not the technicians. It is high time for Aditya Chopra to hire good writers. Audiences just aren’t interested in seeing ‘all style & no substance’ spy drama films anymore.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Alia Bhatt Performance

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Beaten to Death Storyline
2.⁠ ⁠Unexciting Direction
3.⁠ ⁠Lack of original ideas
4.⁠ ⁠Bad Music
5.⁠ ⁠Terrible Performances
6.⁠ ⁠Poorly Executed Hrithik’s Cameo

Analysis:

Even if you consciously try to avoid comparing, while watching Alpha, your mind cannot help but draw parallels with both parts of the Dhurandhar franchise. It is almost impossible to match the standards set by Dhurandhar for any filmmakers in India who aim to make a film in the ‘Spy Thriller’ genre in the future, but the least the audience expects is an honest effort. There’s no way the high-on-style-without-any-substance films work any more in this genre. In Dhurandhar, we have seen that a spy is expected to lead an invisible life and if required, a spy is also expected to stay away from having any contact with the family. Nation comes first, is what the spies believe in. But, at the end of Alpha, Anil Kapoor says the following dialogue to Alia Bhatt – ‘Kill him…For your family, for yourself and for the nation. This particular dialogue effectively summarises the film. At its heart, Alpha is a ‘Family Drama’ but not exactly a ‘Spy Thriller’. All we get to see throughout the film is the boring drama between two sisters and their father, against the backdrop of spies and terrorists. Even if you step into the theatre with the least of expectations, Alpha will still fail to reach your lowest of low expectations.

The director started the film on a boring note with terrible and seemingly uninterested performances by Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol and continued the bland narration until the end. Lead actors in designer clothes, exotic locations, bikinis, liberal doses of skin show, slow motion walking shots of the lead actors and a cameo, we will see all these aforementioned trademark YRF Spy Universe qualities in Alpha as well. Unfortunately, none of those elements was able to save this mess of a film. It is no exaggeration to say the team at YRF, were unable to come up with at least one engaging sequence in a film with around 140 minutes runtime. It feels as if the people associated with the film, lost interest even before the filming started, and they just worked for the sake of completing and releasing the film.

There was a cameo of Hrithik Roshan in the role of Kabir, for about ten minutes. It was shocking to see the director and his team, coming up with such an unexciting writing & execution for the cameo role. There may have been many cameo roles in films in the past which failed to create an impact, but Hrithik Roshan’s cameo in Alpha, should certainly qualify as the worst of all. Read this – ‘A R&AW Chief, who can single-handedly kill a huge group of attackers, right before killing the attackers, asks his self-reliant daughters to go to a safe house by road. Know what? It takes 72 hours for the daughters to reach the safe house. They have to ride bikes, drive a car, walk for some time, climb mountains and swim for a while in lakes, to reach the safe house’. While watching the above-mentioned brain rot of a sequence, we start to wonder, why in the world does he transport them to the safe house through a chopper? Isn’t it quick and safe? After all, he’s the chief of R&AW, and he can order his team to quickly come and rescue his daughters. Instead, he gives two bikes to the daughters and asks them to go to the safe house. Why? Because, the director and his writing team, want to show us the riding skills, swimming skills, mountain climbing sequences, cleavage and biking clad bodies of the lead actresses.

Overall, apart from stylishly appearing lead actresses, Alpha, has nothing else to offer. The writing, the screenplay, the direction, the acting, the music and almost everything else, misfired and ended up making, Alpha, a mess of a film. With, Tiger 3, War 2 and Alpha, YRF Spy Universe, delivered three consecutive duds and severely dented the brand value of the franchise. YRF has only two options now, i.e., either shelve the franchise or hire good writers and come up with grippingly made spy stories and thrillers. And yes, do yourself a favour for now, stay away from stepping into a theatre to watch, Alpha. It has nothing to warrant your valuable time of two and a half hours.

Bottomline – Final Nail In The Coffin

Rating – 1.5/5