- Movie Name:Aiyaary
- Critics Rating: 2.5 / 5
- Release Date: 16-02-2018
- Director: Neeraj Pandey
- Genre: Crime-Thriller
Aiyaary finally released on silverscreen after being deferred for more than twice. It was suffering from a ‘P’ curse. First it was PadMan pushed its release further, then Padmaavat came asking PadMan to defer the release consequently pushing Aiyaary further. Earlier, the Sidharth Malhotra was clashing with Anushka Sharma’s production venture Pari, but the makers postponed the horror flick to avert the pointless clash. After the successful sorting out of box-office clashes spree, Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary finally got a solo release on February 16, 2018. Did it live up to our expectations? Was it worth the wait? Did Neeraj Pandey recreate the magic of Baby, Rustom and MS Dhoni again?
Aiyaary in a nutshell: A messed-up concoction of Baby, Rustom and A Wednesday
An amalgamation of Bollywood hits and critically-acclaimed films like Baby, Rustom and the masterpiece A Wednesday should’ve been an explosive one? Isn’t it? But this isn’t what happened to Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Aiyaary. When too many good things are mixed in random proportions, explosion is inevitable, but not in the way we expect and wish to see. While watching Aiyaary, the mind wanders to several Neeraj Pandey’s film to such an extent that you will get an instant déjà vu of Baby, Rustom or A Wednesday. A vigilante, who wishes to see a change in his country; an honest soldier who goes by the law to bring about a change in the system and an underdog, who’s playing the wind beneath the wings for both of them. We’ve seen this way too many times. But it’s different in Aiyaary, as Neeraj Pandey presents the same old recipe in a rather confusing and chaotic manner.
Talking about first things first, the first half of the film will tempt you to go to the scriptwriter straightaway and ask him what is that he’s trying to convey? The terminology used in Aiyaary is too unfathomable for the audience who knows nothing about illegal arms deal and how the covert missions of an army functions. Not that it isn’t needed, but blowing the first half of the film with weighty subjects would only make an audience get entangled in his own thoughts while missing out on the already jumbled up script of the film. As a result, the first half gets too much to take in.
The second half is a rather interesting one. The film starts catching pace, or precisely, it’s when the audience starts getting a clearer picture of the suspense. The pace of the second half is perfect, neither to fast nor too dreary. It runs with the exact rate of knots we would like a Bollywood film to run. The second half is made more interesting by the ground-breaking performance of Naseeruddin Shah and how he relates the story of a roadside dog Bablu to country's one of biggest scams.
Coming to the leads, Manoj Bajpayee and Sidharth Malhotra. It’s hard to remember a film where Manoj Bajpayee underperformed. He’s always on point, and has always been. Give him a role and the guy will relinquish his star image to nail the task. When he’s a cop, he’s a cop and when he’s an army officer, he’s the one. It has never happened that you’re watching Manoj Bajpayee on screen and have that Bollywood actor image of his in the back of your mind. And that’s how, as an actor he shines above all. In a nutshell, Manoj Bajpayee was as amazing as he could be. A rough, unbendable army officer, Colonel Abhay Singh.
Coming to the leads, Manoj Bajpayee and Sidharth Malhotra. It’s hard to remember a film where Manoj Bajpayee underperformed. He’s always on point, and has always been. Give him a role and the guy will relinquish his star image to nail the task. When he’s a cop, he’s a cop and when he’s an army officer, he’s the one. It has never happened that you’re watching Manoj Bajpayee on screen and have that Bollywood actor image of his in the back of your mind. And that’s how, as an actor he shines above all. In a nutshell, Manoj Bajpayee was as amazing as he could be. A rough, unbendable army officer, Colonel Abhay Singh.
Coming to Sidharth Malhotra. He’s indeed the most amusing surprise package of the film. We’ve seen Sidharth Malhotra many a times sporting a guy next door look. We’ve seen him wrestling his way in a ring with Akshay Kumar or as a deceptive killer in Ittefaq. But Aiyaary is his best performance till date, to say the least. His different guises in the film are captivating and the way he changes his personality with each of the semblance is impressive.
Anupam Kher, though had a very short role to play but it’s hard to keep your eyes off him when he performs. You can feel the presence of a great artist on the screen whenever Anupam Kher shows up. Naseeruddin Shah had an extended cameo in the film, but the veteran actor overshadows everyone thunderously as soon as he’s on the screen. The way he narrates the story of his street dogs and an Army housing society scam will make you ponder over it for hours after the film ends. It won’t be an overstatement to say, that Naseeruddin Shah’s account is the glue that kept us stuck to our seats. Otherwise, the lethargic screenplay and lengthy screentime was already giving us itches while sitting on the seat.
