“Baap Banne Ki Koshish Mat Kar, Kaul “
Alpha Review Disclaimer
Shocking lagega bahaut logon ko ki maine kaise Alpha ki tareef kar raha hu, jabki sab log bura bol rahe hain. But jo sach hai wahi bol raha hu, with all the reasons, and obviously the criticisms too. Agar koi fir bhi mujhe biased, paid ya samosa samajhta hai, toh please understand, samosa walo ko strikes nahi padte. Unka account 3 bar nahi udta.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
If you just want the verdict, whether to watch the film oin theatre or not, just skip to the last paragraph and come back to the review after you’ve whatched Alpha.
Unreal Hate For Alia Bhatt
For more than a year now, I’ve been noticing that hating Alia Bhatt has become a trend. Started with Kangana Ranaut, continued by repeated mistakes by Karan Johar, boosted by Divya Khossla, and continued fuelling by fan wars.
The hate has spread so much that half the people just start to cringe on hearing her name. They don’t have reasons. If you ask them, they will just repeat all the internet bullshit that goes around. They have zero original thought.
Samay Raina ne theek kaha tha India’s Got Latent mein, faltu ka hate milta hai. Her nervousness was visible throughout the show, ki ek galat word fir trollers ko mauka de dega.
But the thing is, ajkal trollers ko koi mauka chahiye bhi nahi. Bina wajah bhi peeche pade rehte hain. Ek photo, ek appearance, ek movie ka poster, aur bhar bhar ke hate. Been noticing this for long. People have just switched off their brains and they love to hate.
Unreal Hate For YRF Spy Universe
Yes, Yrf Spy Universe has several problems and I’ve always mentioned those. But then there are some very idiotic and illogical comparisons and criticisms, which again people have started to point out without thinking. Because, hatred mein hi maza aa raha hai.
Comparison with Dhurandhar is the ultimate example of low-IQ hater behaviour. Har tarah ki film hoti hai just because genre same hai does not mean unko same level pe compare kiya jaye. Dhurandhar and Yrf are based on Indian spies but they are not the same genre of films. Haan bikimi mein heroine hoti hai aur spies foreign mein gaane gaate hain. Toh? Unka apna tareeka hai apni tarah ki films banane ka.
James Bond is also a spy. He works in style, drives stylish cars, dates Bond Girls, uses futuristic tech. Will you compare it to real spies now? What about Mission Impossible? Which spies do such stunts and change their face and voice to impersonate someone in real life? Do you ridicule them?
Zero Dark Thirty is quite a realistic take on Osama Bin Laden’s killing. Will you compare it to Tere Bin Laden? Have you seen Johnny English? It’s like Mr Bean becomes a spy. Will you compare it to realistic espionage? This is ridiculous.
Dhurandhar bhi koi bahaut realistic film nahi hai. Kitna bhi peak detailing by Aditya Dhar keh lo, agar koi uski band bajani chahe toh baja hi dega. Har film ke liye aisa kiya ja sakta hai. Dhurandhar ke liye bhi. I’m not comparing it, nor I’m supporting or ridiculing anyone. I’m only talking about the behaviour of people.
The truth is people have started liking the hate. You can see it everywhere on the internet. Dimag lagana band kar diya hai bas peeche kad jate hain apne apne biasness ke hisab se. Jaise abhi ye naya Shraddha vs Alia shuru ho gaya hai. Kyu? Kyuki dono side ke fans ko kuch chahiye tha ladne ko, toh Eetha vs Gangubai ke performance ka shuru ho gaya hai. Din bhar dono side lage rehte hain apni actor ko best batane aur dusri actor ko neeche girane mein. Thoda dur hatt ke dekho ek bar.. koi sense hai iss baat ka ? Unnecessary comparison nahi hai?
My Theatrical Experience
P [PX], Delhi, 9PM show on Friday night, only front 4 rows were empty. Rest was full. But please realize, the condition of one theatre cannot be the same for the entire nation. News came out that Alpha was released in 9000 screens. So na 9000 ke 9000 screens mein acchi occupancy hogi aur na hi 9000 screens khali honge. Stop believing things on the internet.
I had ripped apart the Alpha teaser and trailer in my reviews. I did not like them. nor the marketing. I was not expecting anything, and because my show was at night, I had already heard from many that Alpha is very bad. So main toh bas isliye gaya ki chalo ticket le li hai dekh lenge.
Opening ke kuch sequence hue, title aya, I said to my brother (he was also not expecting anything after the huge disappointment of War 2), “opening to acchi thi.” He said, ‘haan’.
Then again I had the thought that ab bekar hona shuru hogi but aisa nahi hua. Pura first half bahaut engaging tha. Interval aya, and I said to my brother, “Yar aisa toh kuch bura nahi tha jitna log bol rahe the.” He replied that he was also fully engaged. We both were surprised.
Second half was decent too. Nothing too bad at all. Hrithik ke cameo pe seetiya taaliya padi. Bobby Deol ka bada twist aya. Baki normal hi raha.
Par jaise hi bahar ayein, adat se majbur, log ek dusre ko kehne lage, ‘aye haye kitni gandi film thi,’ etc. Toh bhai aye hi kyu the tum fir? Tum toh pehle se hi mann bana ke aye the.. Na ate. ₹420 per person ki ticket kyu li?
On my way back, my brother and I were discussing the regular flaws, what could have been better in Alpha, what could be done in the universe, and how the people have started to react, and even reviews have started to feed into this mindset to gain audience. Itna kuch nahi tha isme ki taraf gaaliya padein. As I said previously, everyone has started to enjoy the hatred.
Story by Uday Chopra
In my trailer review, I had said, wahi one-track story hogi Alpha ki bhi, puri story trailer mein dikha di, etc. But to my surprise, that wasn’t fully true. The opening shows the beginning of the Alpha Project and the backstory of Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor, and Alia’s mother, Janki.
To some extent, the story goes non-linear, as we see Alia attacking the Alpha facility, and later we get to know why. The rest of it is linear, but we keep getting to know more about the past throughout the film.
The backstory Dia Mirza (Janki) as Anil Kapoor’s wife, and her connection to the Alpha project was nice too.
There are a decent number of twists in the film too. Not decent, I would say Good ones. Some of them might feel predictable to some, but it’s not so easy or bad that everyone would see it coming. But utna toh ab Mission Impossible type Hollywood movies mein bhi hone laga hai. Overall, I would say Alpha had a good story.
Action
I was not expecting much from the action of Alpha as well. Teaser, trailer review mein bol bhi tha. But again to my surprise, they were good. In parts they felt normal, ki haan protagonist hai toh peetega hi, but then in parts it was creative, engaging.
See, it’s evident that Alia and Sharvari are not action stars. They started learning for this film only, so no matter how much effort they put in, they will have some limits. So kudos to the action director, the camera team and the editor, who made the scenes look very engaging throughout. Alia vs Sharvari fight was better than I had expected.
Combo Fights
I have mentioned this earlier (maybe more than once), that I love combo fights. If it’s a team and they are fighting many enemies at once, ek dusre ko assist karke, push deke, jump kara ke marna looks very cool and shows the coordination. Wo isme tha pehli bar. Hrithik-Alia-Sharvari, all together. But overall, uss fight mein bahaut problems the. Aage discuss karta hu.
Alia Vs Bobby Deol
So experts complain that in female-led action movies, what seems very unrealistic sometimes is how the females overpower the males so easily. Think about it. Males are physically stronger than females. That’s biology; that’s a universal truth. There should not be any feminist outrage here.
Even in male fights, if a very big opponent comes on screen, our hero struggles to fight him, right? That’s normal. Obviously, a trained female can defeat a normal male easily. But if the male is also equally trained, the physical advantage is there.
There is a huge difference in the body size of Alia and Bobby Deol. And I loved that she was not able to beat her. Remember Sunny Deol’s dialogue from Ghatak? “Utha utha ke patkunga.. utha utha ke patkunga.” Wahi hua. Bobby Deol ne Alia Bhatt ko utha utha ke patka. Achha laga wo. Physical strength ko respect kiya, zabardasti feminine power dikhane ki koshish nahi ki.
Obviously, the protagonist has to win. So she applies her Alpha training and uses the environment and equipment to her advantage to defeat him.
Acting
Alia Bhatt – I also believe she is not a very great actress, but she is definitely not bad. And there are a few performances where she has been Brilliant. I’m neither believing her haters, nor her fans or PR. Sab log kabhi accha kabhi bura perform karte hain, jo jab jaisa karega waisa bolunga. Kisi pe bhi label lagane ki zarurat nahi hai.
Ali surprised me the most. With her baby face, she was rude, and sassy, and stylish, and I loved it. Something that was not very obvious from the promos. Anil Kapoor aur Sharvari ki kya bezziti karti hai baat baat pe maza aa jata hai. While travelling with Sharvari, she notices how happy she is, at one point she puts a flower in her hair, at another, she too taps her feet seing Sharvari dance. These details were nice.
Sharvari – I felt she was very underutilized. Writing mein hi aur depth dena chahiye tha. Fighting acchi thi. Jo dikhaya achha tha. Par aur hota toh better hota.
Anil Kapoor – Decent. He can do so much more, but story jitna allow karegi utna hi karenge na. He did well.
Bobby Deol – Ekdam mast. He nails every scene of his. Thoda sa aur serious aur dark dikha sakte the end mein. End bahaut simple rakha aur maar diya. Yrf kisi villain ke sath lambi story sochta hi nahi hai.
Bobby Deol’s Backstory
Bhai bahaut sahi tha wo part. De-aged young Bobby Deol was looking so good. Mujhe toh Soldier movie yaad aa gayi thi. Well written, well executed part. That was unexpected and actually done well. Such a long planning by Fateh. 1989 mein aya tha 2026 tak laga hua hai.
Also the part where Verghese tells Sita about the final step of Alpha program before he dies. That was also well written. Aur log keh rahe hain kuch accha nahi hai, story nahi hai, etc. Ab tumne mann hi bana liya hai ki bas negative bolna hai toh kya keh sakte hain.
Music
Pareshan ho gaya hu Punjabification of Bollywood se. Har jagah Punjabi ghusani hai, sense bane ya na bane, accha lagr ya na lage. Spain mein pali badhi hai Sharvari, chalo Hindi ati hai maan liya, Punjabi mein gaana kyu gaa rahi hai?Logic ki baat nahi kar raha yaha. Tang aa gaya hu Hindi films mein zabardasti ke Punjabi gaano se. Na character Punjabi hota hai, na mahol. Chalo koi Punjabi character hua bhi toh naam ka hota hai. Hero Punjabi ka ek sentence nahi bolta puri film mein, lekin gaana pura Punjabi gaata hai. Hindi se kya dikkat ho gayi hai bhai?
BGM
Yrf se na ho raha ab BGM. Tiger, Pathaan, Kabir, Jim, in sabke theme kitne acche hain. Lekin iske baad se pata nahi kya bana rahe hain. Emraan Hashmi ka bhi bekar tha. Hrithik ka War 2 mein Shaitaan Shaitaan wala hi bekar tha. NTR ka yaad bhi nahi kuch tha bhi ya nahi. Alpha mein bhi koi iconic music nahi hai.
Kahin zabardasti ka “Tu Hi Agni Hai” baj raha hai, kahi kuch aur Punjabi mein. Arre bhai fight scenes mein, movies mein music ka sense bhul gaye ho kya? Saiyaara ka itna accha kaise bana liya tha? Ye Spy Universe itna bura kaise ho gaya hai achanak se?
Hrithik’s Cameo
Bhai kya kar diya hai Kabir ko yar? In War he was such a great character. The most serious of the Trinity. Remember that walk while Kabir’s theme played in the background? The way Khalid was looking at him, it was like every single person, every Hrithik fan was looking at him the same way. And in the entire film he was so good. Waha se War 2 aur fir ye cameo. Kya downgrade hai yar.
Story wise sense nahi banata why he was there as a monk, making Rangoli, I mean Mandala. Sita sahi bolti hai ‘kiske pass aa gaye yaha painting bana raha hai.’ Zabardasti ka cameo.
Haan fight karte hue cool lagta hai, coz wo Hrirthik hai. But that’s not how you make a cinematic universe.
Logic Problem
I always say, movies mein humesha real life logic nahi ho sakta, else it would be hard to tell a story. But kuch basic logic hone chahiye. Aur jitna zyada logically film sahi hoti hai utna pata chalta hai filmmaker ne effort dala hai, utna zyada audience ko maza ata hai.
Alia-Sharvari jumping into the river from a cliff? A river in a mountain has high chances of having big rocks underneath. the depth cannot be judged from the surface. Kyu jump karana hai? They in Kashmir and heading to Ladakh in sleeveless tees and shorts. Then climbing a mountain in sneakers and without any gear. Ye 2 parts hata bhi toh sakte the. KUCH BHI thodi na dikhate rahoge? Choti choti details se hi film acchi hoti hai.
In Anil Kapoor’s safehouse, some 30 men show up with guns. Threat level so high he tells Alia-Sharvari to escape. Great. But fir thoda sahi se dikhate na how he killed 30 men. Kaafi easily problem solve kar li. This was the chance to shock the audience, to show Anil Kapoor in some never seen before avatar. And maybe a side-cameo. (I’ll explain a little later). Missed opportunity.
The rest of the movie is still okay, they have not shown physics defying stunts or whatever. Some cinematic liberty is there but not like Pathaan, Tiger 3, and War 2.
In Kabir’s cameo, thoda zyada hadd kar di. The enemy comes in shotoing with a gun. Alia and Sharvari take cover. Kabir wahi baitha hua hai. Aur ek bhi goli nahi lagi. Waise wo Kabir Kabir bolke bhaga tha Kabir ko hi marne aya tha but ek goli bhi nahi mari straight.
Then Kabir gets up, the enemy is still shooting straight and still goes not hit him. Wo Shaktimaan ki tarah bol gol ghumta hai and dodges all bullets. This is not the Kabir that was introduced in War. Bas cool dikhane ke liye KUCH BHI kar dete hain.
Universe Banana Nahi Ata
Bhai Universe ka matlab cameo nahi hota. Na hi ye hota hai ki independent films banaoge aur end mein Tiger, Pathaan, Kabir ek sentence mein bol doge toh ho jayega Universe. War 2 mein bhi wahi kiya aur Alpha mei bhi.
Ye har villain ko ek hi movie mein maar dete hain. Ek ke baad ek independent movies banate rehte hain, jiska kisi se koi relation nahi hota. Bas random cameo aur last mein Tiger, Pathaan, Kabir bol dena.
Universe means something is building up. Everyone is always on some mission, but somewhere some things collide. Sirf cameo se wo inter-related story nahi dikha sakte. They need to be inter-connected on a plot level across movies. MHCU 5 movies mein itna kuch kar gaya, aap 7 movies mein nahi kar paye.
What Could Have Been Done
If i was in the writing team of Alpha or the Spy Universe, I would not have changed anything, but would have added more details to make the Universe factor more exciting for the audience.
Core Setup – I had said this in my War 2 review (read here) as well, that the group Kali could have been used as the main villain of the universe. This could have been the representation of how in the real world, there is a conspiracy theory that some super rich families run the entire world (Illuminati, The Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the BlackRock company, etc). They had such a good chance. But nahi, har movie ki tarah sabko end mein maar diya. Now here’s my take –
- Fateh was being helped by Pakistan, but someone from Kali could have been shown as giving orders to the Pakistani president or ISI chief jisko bhi Fateh report kar raha hota hai. Kali ka conenction ban jata. Fateh was being loyal to Pakistan but the strings were pulled by Kali.
- In Alpha’s second half, Kabir was in Ladakh and Fateh gets to know that from Anil Kapoor’s phone. They could have added a scene where Kaul breaks the phone. But Fateh still sends his men to capture Sita. How? Listen further.
- Kabir’s presence in Ladakh needed to have a reason. He should have been there following up on a lead on Kali. And then, when Fateh’s men reach there, Kabir concludes that maybe there is some connection with Kali and Fateh, else how would they be able to find them? Leave everyone lingering on that thought.
- As it a female-led film, there should have been female cameos. Chalo Zoya and Rubai ka samajh ata hai. Big stars ko lana mushkil hota hai, plus story-wise bhi fit nahi hote yaha. Chalo Kiara bhi pregnant thi, nahi aa sakti thi shoot pe. Logistical issues, understandable.
But what about side-cameos? There are lower level agents also present in the universe, right? Anil kapoor could have called (Aditi from War) for the backup while fighting those 30 men. Or that girl from Pathaan who was in the JOCR team. Let people make connections. Let people enjoy the feeling of an inter-conencted Universe. - Har bar hero ka hi cameo kyu ho? Har bar ek bada agent (Tiger, Pathaan, Kabir) hi kyu aye bachane? Why not a villain? Fateh should not have been killed. Bobby Deol was too good in this film. They could have set it up something like this –
Sharvari, Anil Kapoor and the Indian soldier’s are distracted by some explosions, some men arrive and keep them busy. Sita is about to overpower Fateh (just not like they showed in the film). Jim’s theme plays. He hits Sita and and elopes with an injured Fateh (much like how Sharad rescued Kaleen Bhaiya and ran at the end of Mirzapur 2). - Later Anil Kapoor gets a call from Kabir and tells him what happened in Ladakh, trying to figure out how could they have known. Anil Kapoor tells his side of story, how someone took away Fateh at the last moment (not knowing it was Jim. Only Sita saw Jim’s face not knowing who he was). Kabir and Kaul realize it must be Kali. Meaning something big is happening.
- It is then that Anil Kapoor offers Alia and Sharvari to join RAW. Because something big is happening and they would need all the help they possibly can.
Read that again, think about it. I’ve been practicing writing for a while and I try to make a lot of logical conenctions, within the framework of whatever world has been created. I was able to think all that In a day so if I was in the writng team, we would have months to make the script more tight.
Just imagine if the Spy Universe was heading this way. Alpha would be a stepping stone in the bigger storyline that began with War 2. Audience would actually be a lot more excited for the Universe. Not just independent missions with cameos, not leading up to anything. An actual Universe. The MHCU is setting that up well.
Verdict
If you have already made up your mind and you believe all the hateful things mein said about Alpha, the Spy Universe, about Alia, then toh mat hi jao.
But agar neutral ho aur ek decent film dekhne ka mann hai, toh you can definitely go. Theatrical experience is nice.
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Author: Ishan Jain
Cast – Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor, and others.
Director – Shiv Rawail
Release – 3 July 2026
Produced by – Aditya Chopra
Studio – Yash Raj Films
Also check out: Welcome To The Jungle Movie Review
Stay tuned to OCD Times for more updates. Do check out our other social accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW WORK
We’ve started something new, its called OCD Tales. We will be creating original content, original stories on Youtube. An Instagram version will also be there in vertical format if you prefer that style.
Please check out and show some love. Slowly, we will be moving away completely from Movie Content.
Ek toh quality nahi milti, dusra pata nahi kaun kab strike maar de.
Pushpa 2 Trailer Review Pushpa 2 Trailer Review Pushpa 2 Trailer Review Pushpa 2 Trailer Review
Leave a Reply