It is a major high to see a woman perform great stunts. Her punches and kicks send you on a high-adrenaline ride, while her slaps don’t. It is also equally appalling and shameful for a hero (or a common man) to perform a Dola Re Dola in public. Gender appropriation, feminism, women empowerment, equality, etc. are massively misused, misconstrued terms in India. AR Murugadoss’ Akira wastes no time in setting up these differences right at the outset. Boys are shown practising karate and girls kathak, only a few feet away from each other. The director puts everything out there, on your face. Subtlety is something he is unaware of.
Remade from a Tamil film with a male protagonist (Mouna Guru), Murugadoss does little to adapt the screenplay for Bollywood and, more importantly, to a woman. Not that he did so in his previous ventures (Ghajini, Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty) that had huge male stars backing them. Akira (Sonakshi Sinha) does pretty much everything an alpha male would do in similar situations. She is dissed for her gender. She can pretty much break every bone in your body, all of which is great. How about the message that comes across? The dynamics and stakes differ when a female protagonist is in focus. How about an iota of sensitivity? Not a thing with Murugadoss.
Midway through this lengthy film, Akira makes a speech for children with special needs, a speech on how one is disabled only when he or she doesn’t fight oppression or is mute to others’ suffering. The film’s long-drawn, absurd climax nullifies every single word she speaks. Our badass leading lady ends up with the dreaded heroine act, sacrifice. Even if we view Akira as a commercial potboiler, the revenge remains unrequited. The villains aren’t punished.
Akira doesn’t get to walk off into the sunset like a true boss. She has an understated victory and ends up in a mind-numbingly tame vocation. The writers blame it on her father’s principles. Groan!
Akira is a strangely violent film with Jupiter-sized plot holes, much like a Tamil film dubbed in Hindi but with a fiery woman hogging every frame. Oh wait, there’s a thankless love interest (Amit Sadh) angle too. A city version of a gaon ki gori, he works for an NGO and miraculously falls for our girl. Now that’s one gender reversal worth noticing. All I missed was a sexy item number with him seducing our brooding Akira.
Talking about Tamil cinema, the film also has Anurag Kashyap playing to the gallery as a hateful, all-dark cop. He cracks a line, “Maal sahi hai. South ka lagta hai…”. Was it Murugadoss rubbing his bewildered ego, or Kashyap expressing his well-known love for southern cinema? Kashyap’s character is also shown to briefly date South Indian hottie Raai Laxmi. Well, well.
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Akira also turns out to be a dictionary of stock characters: eve-teasers, a noble teacher, a naïve mother, an unsympathetic bhabhi and her benevolent brother, campus hooligans who corner our girl for no reason, an honest commissioner, a conning call girl, and a bunch of corrupt cops. There is also a mentally unstable character who conveniently becomes Akira’s ‘henchwoman’, gaining sanity as and when required. People die like mosquitoes. One of them falls off a chair and, guess what, dies. Huh, whatever.
Given Murugadoss’ goodwill down South, the film has a top-notch technical crew at the helm. We have A. R. Sreekar Prasad wielding the scissors. Though he couldn’t have done much with the drab story, the film keeps you hooked till the end. R. D. Rajasekhar’s cinematography is apt and oozes a Tamil film vibe throughout. Another Sonakshi Sinha film, Tevar, was photographed in a similar fashion. Vishal–Shekhar’s music is quite good, with Sunidhi Chauhan’s “Badal” being a gem. Dileep Subramanian’s sound design sets a great mood. Production design by Matchstix is worth admiring. Dialogues by Karan Singh Rathore are occasionally riveting, and last but not least, action choreography by “Anl” Arasu is bound to blow your mind.
For a film that is technically proficient, the performances don’t quite match up. Sonakshi Sinha puts in a brilliant effort, looks her part, and fights like a pro. Still, there is a limit to what she can salvage from a badly penned character. Anurag Kashyap makes a killing as Akira’s most exciting presence. One can call it borderline hammy, but Kashyap’s performance is one of the film’s highlights.
Konkona Sen Sharma has that babe-in-the-woods expression throughout. It doesn’t help that she plays a heavily pregnant, honest policewoman. Women empowerment again? Spare us, Koko. We would rather wait for your directorial venture. Amit Sadh is wasted. Smita Jaykar doesn’t have much to do, but we are glad she is back. Supporting artists do nothing to elevate the proceedings.
Two years ago came Pradeep Sarkar’s Mardaani, starring Rani Mukerji. Armed with a good script and even better performances, the film had girl power in full swing. She walked the slo-mo hero walk, the audience applauded in unison, and the producers laughed all the way to the bank. What they couldn’t do without was a title that didn’t propagate misogyny. It unintentionally reiterated physical fight as a man’s forte. Given the film’s strong content, audiences were kind enough to overlook this point.
With Akira, the filmmaker indeed gives her kicks, punches, and punchlines galore. Yet Akira sadly ends up the goddess of sacrifice. Why? Her revealing the truth can burn Mumbai down. I would have loved to see Akira fight and rescue the city, all by herself. Almost like a comic-book superwoman. Before we get there, we don’t even know what goes through her mind, even as she protests for her professor in the middle of a lathi charge or when she makes small talk with a handsome lad. What is she even made of?
Depth is the word Murugadoss ought to Google.
Rating: ★★
Akira is now streaming on Jio Hotstar.
