Alpha

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.

The YRF spy universe may pride itself on crossovers but the only connection it has ever established is superstar cameos make for crowd-pleasing attractions every time they get each other’s back in lavishly mounted action set pieces. Even at their scene stealing best – think Katrina Kaif’s towel clad fisticuffs in Tiger 3 or Deepika Padukone’s ice skating chase in Pathaan – the ladies must settle for secondary status. In Alpha, women are shown as the face of the franchise but still dictated by men in power as fathers and foes they must contend with for the sake of spinoffs. Director Shiv Rawail’s half-hearted diversion from the male-dominated genre means to give the girls their due but only ends up failing their cause in a generic, lacklustre actioner.

After her husband played a different kind of alpha in Animal (2023), Alia Bhatt arrives to kick some man rears in YRF spy-universe’s first female-led actioner Alpha. Here girls get more agency than the freedom of choosing their partners. They get it done. They can man a machine gun, throw deadly knives, break limbs and climb mountains in shorts and sneakers, all while being powered by some Scooty Pep ad optimism: “Stubborn girls change the world.”