Halfway through Siddharth Anand’s War, the Bollywood action checklist is already complete. National security is at risk because a bunch of over-styled terrorists, Muslim of course, have decided it should be. The leading man has no family, and says so, because the nation is his family. Good men go rogue, but never without a twist waiting behind the betrayal.
Anand’s film has all of that, plus the other trick of the moment: the good Muslim against the bad Muslim. Khalid Rahmani (Tiger Shroff) is a diligent officer whose father is known as a gaddar. The word is pronounced with so much theatre that the film seems convinced the choice is that simple: deshbhakt or deshdrohi. I nearly laughed when Naina (Vaani Kapoor) announces that not everyone cares for the nation, that the self comes first.
Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) would not subscribe. He is forever on secret missions in exotic countries for Colonel Luthra (Ashutosh Rana). Looking at the work, it is never clear whether he is RAW or simply an expert soldier. This is a Yash Raj production throwing money in every visible direction, so the film would rather you did not ask. The twist, already in the trailer, is that Kabir turns on the system.
Sent to nab his old mentor, Khalid is more interested in why. A long flashback takes us to their first operation, again somewhere in the Middle East. Part comic, part thriller, and I was mostly watching the antagonist’s man bun, which refuses to come undone after he has been toppled and thrashed by our agile heroes.
War improves in the second act. Shridhar Raghavan and Anand give Kabir and Khalid a few simple, sensible layers, and the action is slick enough to carry anyone who came for the genre. The aircraft sequence looks silly on paper. On screen, you trust Roshan to sell it, larger-than-life aura intact. These are the moments that confirm he was not built for playing a hapless teacher in Super 30.
Benjamin Jasper’s cinematography is the other reason it plays. Shroff’s first action stretch has almost no cuts. The camera rarely rests, and that motion is what sets the pace. The quick zooms are not a habit of mainstream Hindi cinema, and here they work. So does the circular pan he uses when a scene needs urgency that the page has not supplied. With Aarif Sheikh choosing the frames, even a plain over-the-shoulder shot looks considered.
Abbas Tyrewala’s dialogue knows the territory and supplies lines worth repeating. Sanchit and Ankit Balhara’s score is strong, especially when they put melody, saxophone and mandolin under the action. Vishal-Shekhar’s songs are fine. The placement of Jai Jai Shiv Shankar is not.
The final act throws the logic out. People become whoever the plot needs, without rhyme or reason. The double-crosses and counter-double-crosses get too thick, and all of it is supposedly in service of India’s safety. Anand is so set on the holiday-blockbuster costume that he has his leads race across snow-capped roads in the Arctic Circle. And when will Hindi film characters stop leaving the keys in the ignition? In War, a jeep parked inside a flying aircraft has its key in the slot too. The only reason is so the heroes can drive off.
This is not a film for acting marvels, but Roshan’s ability to make ridiculous sequences work is hard to dismiss. The rugged persona and a few cleanly delivered lines lift War several notches. Shroff is pitch-perfect in the action and pale beside him everywhere else. Kapoor, in what amounts to a special appearance, looks the part and passes muster. For all the spark she had in Shuddh Desi Romance, she seems to be unlearning it. Her diction has graduated to Kartik Aaryan’s I-just-swallowed-an-aubergine mode.
Anupriya Goenka is better in a part more exciting than the leading lady’s. Ashutosh Rana is a delight, and there should have been more of him. The antagonists are so-so, some without menace, others over the top. The child belongs to a cliché the rest of the film’s tone cannot absorb.
Even so, War does not sink into the mediocrity of recent Indian action thrillers. It takes the audience for granted, but not without offering something against those expectations. Roshan and Jasper do most of the work. Anand, somehow, delivers better thrills than he did in the half-baked Bang Bang!
VERDICT: ★★★
War is now streaming on Netflix.
