Alpha

Alia Bhatt's action holds the film together, but the melodrama and clutter blunt its impact.

The mission of Alia Bhatt, Sharvari's film was ambitious. The execution? Not quite. Alpha may not get everything right, but it certainly feels like a step in the right direction.

ALPHA is mounted on a grand scale but suffers due to a weak script.

Alpha proves two things. First, social media's habit of writing a film's fate months before release helps nobody. Second, not every film that survives online negativity necessarily warrants the benefit of the doubt. Alpha is neither the disaster naysayers had predicted nor the reinvention the SpyVerse needed after the disappointing War 2. It is a competently mounted but emotionally underwhelming film that delivers very few highs, largely courtesy Hrithik Roshan, but never finds a compelling pulse of its own.

'Alpha' tells the story of two women in a high-stakes spy mission, but it is an origin story loaded with slick action and muted narrative that fails to fully engage.

Even if you step into the theatre with the least of expectations, Alpha will still fail to reach your lowest of low expectations. 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.

The story does not make sense! That story is Alpha! This film starts at a bizarre point and religiously follows that bizarreness, not making sense even for a second! I wish there could have been some way that could have saved the Spy Universe from this downfall, because this one seems the final nail in the coffin!

Alpha is a low voltage, sluggish spy thriller that fails to ignite despite its promising premise and capable cast. The film struggles to maintain momentum and deliver the espionage thrills expected from a YRF spy universe entry.

Alpha is a botched up opportunity. 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. Her lazily-written character, like the rest of the film, relies on empty attitude and endless gunfire to find its feet.

The YRF spy franchise finds its most hesitant soldier in Alpha, a film that struggles to balance its ambitions with execution.

All credit to a newly minted Palme d'Or-winner for having the courage to step out of their comfort zone, but "Alpha" is an insufferable misfire.

Alpha is more product than experience, with sketchily drawn characters, a derivative plot and predictable beats. The chief item on offer in Alpha is brawn over brain, and the rigour, ideas and production budget needed to expand the franchise in interesting ways are in short supply.

However, intentions aside, the problem is that there is hardly any freshness in the story, and Alia struggles to keep it from feeling like a comic strip spread over two hours. One feels the writing department definitely needs a massive dose of Alpha serum to inject some energy, depth, and originality into the franchise. While the film belongs to its leading ladies, the solid presence of Bobby and Anil cannot be understated, but their commitment and intensity provide enough dramatic weight to keep a shallow, derivative script afloat for those who marvel at spectacle rather than storytelling.

Alia Bhatt is the reason this Yash Raj film has a pulse.