Udta Teer

It looked too good to be true. A mainstream hero of a stirred-up democracy championing a contentious padosi mulk’s cause is as brave as Ayushmann Khurrana’s oeuvre of out-of-the-box characters gets. But Udta Teer’s flight of fantasy goes only thus far and no further. When the choice is between Pakistani intelligence and Indian patriotism, the verdict is as clear as day. All works should be seen as a whole but writer Akash A Kaushik’s directorial debut is akin to watching two movies in one – the first half is doused in goofy irreverence having a ball without batting an eyelid, the other is an exercise in appeasement at the cost of jarring tonal shifts.

There is very little joy in watching a Bollywood spy comedy these days. You’re always on high alert. The suspense stems from the anticipation of exactly when the movie will break. The trust issues are immense. You know the drill: spoofy first half, serious second half. If it starts on an entertaining note, you sense there’s a catch. If it’s funny, you feel a bit guilty for laughing because you know the film will eventually reveal itself: intellectually, politically, patriotically. Humour disarms an audience more than violence and gore, so you know comedy is the prettiest trojan horse to soften the hall for mandatory India-shining messages. Being mean-spirited is a bonus.

A sleeper agent of Pakistan’s ISI, Bilal (Ayushmann Khurrana), infiltrates India’s Counter Terrorism Squad (CTS), only to lose his memory in an accident and forget his real identity. With dime-a-dozen spy thrillers flooding Bollywood, Udta Teer feels like a refreshing mockumentary-style satire that offers a funny take on the genre. At least, that’s how it begins. An Indian agent proclaims, ‘Mulk ke aagey kuch nahi’, only for it to emerge that he is actually Pakistani and means the same for his own country. But when he and his allies risk blowing their cover, a fatal accident leaves him with amnesia, triggering chaos and comedy as he suddenly becomes loyal to India. Deshbhakti yaad hai, par desh nahi.

An amnesiac Pakistani spy on an Indian mission that goes massively wrong seems like a cracker of an idea. Especially when it’s being fronted by Ayushmann Khurrana, who has the ability to be both serious and droll, without getting all heavy about it. It’s too bad that the film forgets the memo, just like its hero, because it never quite knows whether it wants to be a comedy or a tragedy, getting all twisted out of shape trying to figure left, right, both, and where-do-I-go-from-here? There’s no confusion in the way it begins. An operation in Kashmir, with a crack Indian anti-terrorist team all set to smoke out dreaded terrorist Azhar Masood (Mukul Dev), goes bust when he escapes across the border. A crestfallen Vikrant (Ayushmann Khurrana) is let off the hook by his boss (Smita Tambe), but his colleague (Suhail Nayyar) grows ever suspicious: is there more going on than meets the eye? Who is Bilal Ahmed? Is the Pakistani infiltrator hiding in plain sight?

Patriotism is a difficult sentiment to practise in India today. Unlike religion, which you can choose to keep private, patriotism is something you are often expected to perform in public. The social pressure is such that you might invite a rude stare if you don’t shout “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” after the National Anthem in a cinema hall, which is perhaps the least patriotic of places. Director Akash A Kaushik’s Udta Teer raises a tricky question in this climate: is love for one’s homeland interchangeable? The film’s recurring line, “mulk ke aage kuch nahin”, makes us wonder which nation truly belongs to whom, and who gets to decide what patriotism should look like.