Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover, Akshay Oberoi, Rishabh Sawhney
Director: Siddharth Anand
Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review: Fighter is not just a film about patriotism; it’s an unabashed celebration of Hrithik Roshan. From the snow-covered landscapes of Jammu and Kashmir to the immaculate jawline of Hrithik Roshan, the movie is, first and foremost, a visual love letter to the Bollywood star. At 50, Hrithik Roshan dances with the energy of a newcomer and blushes with the charm of a seasoned actor. The film captures his essence through loving close-ups, shameless pans of his unclothed frame, and even a poetic recitation by the fireside.
Its plot line refers to the situation after a terrorist operation that bears resemblance with what happened in the last year’s Pulwama incident, prompting India to ponder about retaliatory moves. The movie imitates some of the real-life occurrences as it shows the death of a jihadist training camp from Balakot in Pakistan. The narrative presented a triumphant tone in its work; firm, and forever partnered with the Air Force leaves almost no room for interpretation.
Rendered by DNEG, the VFX company behind Dune and all Bond movies in the last 20 years, Fighter is scenes of spectacular visual accuracy as it seamlessly puts real military airplanes alongside superlative CGI. The Balakot strike begins very brightly with a flurry of Scorching contrails across the night sky, as audio intrusive to swear buta dozens Mirage 2000 fighter jets. The three dimensional experience enhances the enhanced and immersive nature a lot without making the viewers uncomfortable.
What doesn’t work
The film is impressive in the first half where tension develops with a very easily placed narrative. Second half makes a precipitous drop when the contrived elements seem to have been forcibly inserted to achieve the perfect number of screens. Redemption emerges during the last 20 minutes in an exciting thriller at the end. One of the issues that can be spotted in this film is an obvious defect present either within the speech writing when it tends to gravitate towards grisly, unpleasant and gratuitous territory while aspiring at warfare picture from where subtlety should derive.
Performances
Hrithik Roshan is the soul of Fighter. With never-equaled style, a sculpted trinity and enchanting scowls he owns every frame effortlessly. Although Deepika Padukone is known for her glamorous roles, she really convincingly delivers one of the best performances in this movie which shows that even though she succeeds as a primaeval beauty and also flirtatious ingénue it does not mean that s he cannot also play obscure protagonists who can give depth to what initially seems banal. The choice of actors like Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover and also Akshay Oberoi who play well portrayed characters is very commendable.
Though Fighter pulls off coherence, Poirier often deservedly collapses due to his inability over photorealism from an emotional point of a child with six years. While in the combat scenario, we would not expect to see such cavalier impropriety on a part of the aviators ‘trashing’ each other. In fact, this is how they comport themselves with all too casual insouciance within the world inside and outside planes . The review comes to an end with reflections upon the present-day Hindi action films and a curious expectation of the box office trivial details.
Lastly, Fighter is a cinematic affair that for any admirer of Hindi cinema will delight and deter simultaneously for the viewership to face consternation regarding these desires from Indian cinegoing nation.