On paper, this was an ideal descendent of War (2019) and Pathaan (2023). It should’ve worked wonders: He-who-can-do-no-wrong Hrithik Roshan, She-miracle Deepika Padukone, the Indianisation of Top Gun, the hottest director in B-town. Missing, however, is the legacy studio tag of YRF – and by extension, a wistful take on cross-border tensions. The result: A loud colonisation of disputed history, where jingoism becomes the only currency of entertainment. The romance lies between India and India, leaving no space for any sort of meta stamp or star power. Roshan’s aura is consumed by the tone, and he ends up over-playing second fiddle in a film that sacrifices its cinematic potential at the altar of modern discourse. The earth is the limit for this sky-laden action drama – tasteless villains, Pakistani caricatures and tepid writing reduce an ambitious Sid Anand actioner to a generic Air Force tribute without a voice. Not to mention its reading of patriotism, which equates pride for one’s own country with spite for the rest.
5. Bang Bang! (2014)
If you look at Siddharth Anand’s remake of Knight and Day as a very expensive litmus test for War – or even as a noisy first over of his decade-long ‘action’ innings – it may just be possible to look beyond its image as a mediocre version of a middling Tom Cruise movie. (Or not). All the signs of a brighter future were there, though: That electro-beat musical rhythm and ridi-cool-ous set pieces, the uncanny sound editing, the physical payoffs, the blurry pace, the quasi-political punches. It tried to capitalise on Katrina Kaif’s Ek Tha Tiger fame, while selling Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish Kool Aid in a new bottle. But the long and derivative spectacle left no room to appreciate the high-intensity chases and knotty plot contrivances. At best it felt like a lesser Agent Vinod (2012) – an equally greedy but striking misfire – because of how blandly it adapted the Western action template. It also didn’t help, or perhaps it did, that Roshan had more chemistry with himself than any other human in the alleged action comedy.
