Alpha

Let’s get two things out of the way right away. YRF has abandoned its RAW+ISI bhai-bhai theme for a change and Sharvari (as Durga) is not a Pak agent teaming with Indian Sita (Alia Bhatt). In fact, Pakistan is the baddie that’s named this time and India is the one with the valour. Jai Hind to that. With the pre-release misinformation set aside, step into the dark world of demoted army officer Fateh Singh Lakhawat (Bobby Deol) whose pet project Alpha has been officially shut down. In his punishment posting at Cherrapunji, he continues his research to create the ultimate Alpha soldier with infant Sita as his guinea pig.

Armed with the potent Alpha serum, Sita (Alia Bhatt) is trained by Colonel Fateh (Bobby Deol) to become an elite assassin and a valuable asset for India’s special forces. However, everything changes when she discovers the truth about her past and goes rogue. Along the way, Sita crosses paths with Durga (Sharvari), RAW chief Kaul (Anil Kapoor), and a tragic past that binds the trio together while reopening old wounds. Shiv Rawail’s Alpha rests on the petite shoulders of two capable female leads, neither of whom are conventional action stars — a relatively novel proposition for Bollywood. Rooted in the trauma of a stolen childhood, Alpha initially shows promise of crafting an action thriller around buried pain and emotional scars. You expect that inner conflict to shape the narrative. Even the idea of introducing two superheroic female assassins, reminiscent of Black Widow, into the YRF Spy Universe feels genuinely exciting on paper. Bollywood creating its own genetically enhanced super soldiers armed with elite combat training, think Captain America or The Winter Soldier, is an ambitious idea in itself.

Credibility is an important attribute when telling any tale, more so if it is around India’s national security. Yash Raj’s spy universe for long operated with the ability to make viewers suspend their belief and instead soak in the foreign locales, the choreographed stunt set-pieces, the songs and the swagger on display. That is until Dhurandhar entered the spy landscape. Suddenly, reality became a mainstay, the threat all too actual, to make the film an immersive experience. Alpha, YRF’s first women-centred narrative in the testosterone-heavy spy universe, arrives in that environment, wherein it will be measured not against Pathaan, Tiger, War et al but against the world Aditya Dhar created in Dhurandhar.

There is really nothing Alia Bhatt cannot do. In her entry scene in Shiv Rawail’s Alpha, she takes down an entire factory of soldiers — all men — with the unhurried efficiency of someone finishing her morning cardio, then pauses mid-massacre to rescue a hamster. A lab rat, like her. It’s the funniest thing in the film, and also, in its way, the saddest: a woman built and broken by the same institution, still soft enough to save something smaller than herself. Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), and War (2019) were standalone hits before Aditya Chopra-led Yash Raj Films called them a universe. It was Pathaan (2023), riding on War’s success, that formally stitched them into YRF’s spy universe, a shared world of R&AW agents fighting increasingly baroque threats. Alpha is the seventh franchise entry, and the first to hand the franchise to women. Working off a story credited to Uday Chopra, Rawail — son of Rahul Rawail— directs Alia Bhatt as Sita and Sharvari as Durga, twin sisters separated at birth and raised with entirely different fates. Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol, playing special forces officers whose friendship curdles into something else entirely, carry the older, sadder half of the story.

There is something invigorating about watching two women coolly pow-wow and pummel their way through a horde of frothing-at-the-mouth men in scene after scene of expertly-crafted choreography. Not only is the vibe visceral, it also gives the feel that these women are punching down patriarchal barriers — both literal and metaphorical — to finally get their moment on screen. Unfortunately, it is only in this aspect that Alpha leaves an impact. The first female-led film in the Yash Raj Films Spy Universe — till now populated with the Tigers, Pathans and Kabirs of the world — gives women a toe-in in its latest addition to the franchise, with Alia Bhatt and Sharvari doing all they can to step up to the challenge. But Alpha, which starts off semi strong and throws in some interesting bits (more action than emotion) along the way, eventually fizzles out to deliver a largely ineffective watch which is neither surprisingly good nor shockingly bad. It is simply dull.

बॉलीवुड में महिला केंद्रित फिल्में बनाते वक्त अक्सर बजट का रोना रोया जाता है। ऐसे में, यह मांग काफी समय से उठ रही थी कि हीरोइन को लेकर भी एक ऐसी बड़े बजट की कमर्श‍ियल एक्शन फिल्म बनाई जाए, जैसी नायकों के लिए बनती है। जाने-माने निर्माता आदित्य चोपड़ा ने यह पहल की और उनके चर्चित ‘स्पाई यूनिवर्स’ में टाइगर-सलमान खान, पठान-शाहरुख खान और कबीर-ऋ‍तिक रोशन के बाद, अब दो अल्फा गर्ल्स आलिया भट्ट और शर्वरी की एंट्री हुई है। खास बात यह कि फिल्म देशभर में बड़े स्तर पर करीब 2,750 स्क्रीन्स पर रिलीज हुई है, जिसके 9,000 शोज हैं। ओपनिंग डे पर सुबह के शोज में युवाओं (ज्यादातर लड़कों) की तादाद यह दिखाती है कि ऑडियंस को हीरो या हीरोइन की फिल्म होने से फर्क नहीं पड़ता, बशर्ते फिल्म उनकी रुचि जगाने में कामयाब हो। लेकिन क्‍या इन सबके बाद, आलिया का ‘अल्फा’ दमदार रहा? चलिए बताते हैं!

“Being careful is the new brave,” says R&AW chief Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor) while driving through Kashmir. He’s reminding his butt-kicking daughter, Durga (Sharvari), to stay alert and expect an attack from rogue forces. We soon hear another of his Kaulisms: “Sometimes you have to go backward to move forward”. He’s dispensing sound military advice, of course. But the film he’s in (Alpha), and the commercial franchise he’s in (YRF Spy Universe), follows this advice to a T. It takes every one of his words to heart, only to damage its own heart in the process.