Shiv Rawail's 'Alpha', the latest addition to the YRF Spy-Verse, marks the franchise's first female-led film but squanders its potential with a middling script, clunky dialogue, and action sequences that prioritize sensory overload over substance. Starring Alia Bhatt and Sharvari as twin sisters Sita and Durga, the film struggles to establish an emotional core, reducing its protagonists to genetically-modified action figures rather than fully realized characters.
A Promising Premise Undermined by Predictable Twists
Set in the aftermath of the Kargil war, the film introduces 'Alpha', a serum that grants enhanced hearing, underwater breathing, and regenerative abilities but inevitably kills its recipients. RAW chief Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor) and his morally ambiguous mentee Colonel Fateh Singh (Bobby Deol) oversee the covert operation. Only later do they discover the serum's fatal side effect—except Vikrant's twin daughters are born with Alpha naturally coursing through their veins. Fateh forcibly takes infant Sita as a lab rat and disappears into Rajasthan to restart the now-shutdown program, evading court-martial and scrutiny for decades. The film waves away logical questions about why the authorities failed to notice a decades-long super-soldier program or why the twins, raised separately—Durga in Spain and Sita by Fateh—grow up speaking with neither accent.
Missed Emotional Opportunities and Product Placement
Years later, Sita goes rogue to hunt down Fateh and finally confronts the family she never knew. This should be the emotional centerpiece—a daughter wrestling with abandonment and resentment—but instead, she pauses the violent encounter to make ramen, cracking a joke about loving “desi Chinese” in a shameless plug for Ching's Secret. As the critic notes, “Nothing captures modern blockbuster priorities quite like interrupting trauma for branded noodles.”
Performances Lost in the Shuffle
Alia Bhatt initially appears bewildered by the material but eventually finds conviction by hardening Sita into a wounded, headstrong person. Sharvari is a welcome but underused burst of energy. Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol commit admirably, playing respectively “perhaps India’s least competent Intelligence chief and a rogue Colonel whose career should’ve ended somewhere around page five.” Hrithik Roshan appears in a cameo as Kabir, but the film fails to give its women richer emotional terrain. Instead, empowerment is portrayed as pausing mid-escape for a scenic dip or fighting in uncomfortably tight clothing.
Forced One-Liners and Tired Clichés
The film seems more concerned with manufacturing social media trends than telling a compelling story. Groan-inducing one-liners include “One shot, one kill, no luck, all skill”; “Nazar hati, gardan kati”; and the immortal “Once you go Alpha, you never go back.” The music, once a calling card of the franchise, leaves no memorable notes. Ultimately, the screenplay falls back on Bollywood’s latest escape hatch: “When in doubt, blame Pakistan.”
