★★★★
“Sisters, doing it for themselves…”
Bollywood has done action heroines in the past: Mardaani and its sequel are solid, and Raazi is as good a spy thriller as anything out of the West. But the higher up the budgetary chain you go, the more likely the women are to be shuffled off to the side, as romantic interests and/or sidekicks. This perhaps a little surprising, because one of the earliest stars of Indian cinema was Fearless Nadia, an Australian stuntwoman/actress who became an unexpected star in thirties Bollywood. However, if the perception in the West is that audience won’t go to see women kicking butt, it’s even more so in India. This is the first modern Bollywood action film with both a female lead and a large budget.
The latter, admittedly is relative. The estimated $10-15 million cost for Alpha is barely a blip in the Hollywood scheme of things. However, it’s important to realize how cheap cinema going is in India. The average ticket price in 2025 converts to about $1.70, though prices do vary substantially, depending on location, etc. But with the average ticket price in the US approaching ten times as much, it’s fair to equate Alpha to a $100 million dollar movie from Hollywood. Certainly, it looks very slick, with production qualities across the board it’s hard to complain about. Alpha forms part of a franchise called the YRJ Spy Universe. This action series, which started in 2012 with Ek Tha Tiger, operates along the lines of the MCU, sharing characters across its seven films so far.
Some of them have done very well: Pathaan, the fourth film, still ranks among the ten biggest-grossing Indian movies of all time. However, since that peak, the returns have diminished, even as the budgets have continued to increase. That may explain a) the decision by the makers to try something different in Alpha, and b) the sharply reduced resources here. This cost only about one-third of the preceding entry, War 2. However, unlike the MCU, you don’t need to have seen twelve movies and eight TV series to understand it. There is an extended cameo by Major Kabir Dhaliwal, from War and its sequel, which would likely be appreciated mostly by fans of the franchise. But otherwise, Alpha stands on its own without any difficulties.
The film begins in 1999, with the establishment of the Alpha project, intended to create an army of super soldiers. The sole success is accidental, after the experimental serum is administered to a pregnant woman by her husband, military officer Vikrant Kaul (Kapoor), in a desperate and unsuccessful attempt to save her life. The new-born daughter survives, being spirited away by Colonel Fateh Singh Lakhawat (Deol) and raised to become a weapon for India. However, as an adult, Sita (Bhatt) goes rogue, leaving her foster parent behind, and seeking to eliminate all those involved in the Alpha project. That includes her biological father, now head of Indian intelligence, and the fraternal twin she never knew, Durga (Sharvari).
While there are a number of twists over the course of the 140 minutes – almost terse by Bollywood standards, a good half-hour shorter than War 2 – I’d not say there are many surprises. There is the obligatory rampant patriotism, though this takes surprisingly long to show up, coming about as a result of one twist in particular. Probably the biggest shock is the complete lack of romance. It feels like even the toughest Bollywood action film inevitably shoehorns in romance, largely as an excuse for those obligatory musical numbers. Here? Nothing. The closest we get to love is one married couple, and they don’t make it to the quarter-hour mark. Instead, it’s entirely about family relationships: father-daughter, foster father-daughter and between sisters. I found that refreshing.
The SF elements also give a justification for the more “I’m so sure” responses to the action. The Alpha serum is basically the YRJ equivalent of a bite from a radioactive spider, and explains why the sisters can go toe-to-toe with opponents twice their size. This is in contrast to the previous entries, which were at least relatively grounded, in the Indo-Pakistan cold war. I’m uncertain how Durga is able to take on Sita, the latter having the advantage of decades of combat training. However, the results remain as good as any female vs. female battle to come out of Hollywood this year, so I’m not complaining.
As noted, the overall path is much as you’d expect. You know that Sita and Durga are going to end up on the same side, fighting against one or other of the father figures. This largely happens after they are attacked in Vikrant’s extremely rural safe house, and they have to go on the march across some rather impressive Kashmir scenery. Lovely though it is, this sequence does becomes a little too blandly obvious an excuse for an extended musical montage. It was likely the only point at which I found myself looking at my watch. Otherwise, the time flew past. I appreciated the effort made to give everyone here, even the eventual villain/ess (I’ll never tell!) of the piece, a decent bit of motivation and back story. Add in some solid action, plus an obvious Nikita nod, and I can’t think of many films I’ve enjoyed more this year.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a success. While some of the reviews are… Let’s just say, I was left wondering if we’d seen the same film, I can’t argue about the fact that it fell short of making its budget back. In Bollywood, as in Hollywood, adding to the series of commercial disappointments in our genre at the box-office for 2026. It’ll be interesting to see where the YRJ Spy Universe goes from here, and also whether this roll of the die on a full-on girls with guns film will prove to be one and done. I hope it isn’t, because there’s obvious ability here, and the volumes of style and spectacle brought to the end product here, is something I’d love to see again.
Dir: Shiv Rawail
Star: Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor
[This is an expanded version of a review originally written for Film Blitz]