The YRF Spyverse is now running on vibes, star cameos and whatever ridiculously catchy new jingle with placeholder English lyrics Sanchit and Ankit Balhara have cooked up. After the glorious high of Pathaan (2023), there’s only been disappointment: first the unnecessary Tiger 3 (2023), then the embarrassing misfire of War 2 (2025). Shiv Rawail’s Alpha isn’t as dire as the previous two entries, but nevertheless shows a franchise badly in need of fresh ideas and, more importantly, a sense of purpose.
A hostage rescue aboard a ship, reminiscent of NTR Jr’s entry scene in War 2, is an early warning that Alpha has no intention of forging a bold new path. The operation turns out to be a pitch by covert operative Fateh Singh Lakhawat (Bobby Deol) to sanction his top-secret programme. Working with scientist Varghese (Dibyendu Bhattacharya), he’s assembled a unit of highly trained soldiers injected with a serum called ‘Alpha’. You’re probably thinking super-speed, super-strength, some kind of intelligence boost. Instead, the film chooses to underline two specific powers, neither at all exciting: quick recovery from wounds and acute hearing. Oh, and it kills you within months, a shock discovery with repercussions for Lakhawat and Col Kaul (Anil Kapoor), introduced in War 2 as the new R&AW head and a central figure tying together the Spyverse.
After his experiments turn up dead, Lakhawat is demoted and sent to wet, remote Cherrapunji. He starts up his programme again, this time without official sanction. He also monitors Sita, his surrogate daughter—actually Kaul’s daughter—who has the Alpha serum in her from birth. Once the girl shows signs of uncommon ability, he focuses on making her a weapon for revenge on a system that discarded him. This grim upbringing is contrasted with the dance-y, sporty, happy life of Durga (Sharvari), Sita’s twin, also Alpha-enhanced, whom Kaul has stashed away in Spain.
Lakahawat’s treatment of Sita (played by Khushi Hajare as a child and Alia Bhatt as an adult) is punishing and abusive. As a baby, we see her isolated in a tiny incubator, crying. She grows up confined and unloved on a base in the Thar desert. She doesn’t know she’s Kaul’s child, or that her mentor abducted her. On her first assignment as an assassin, she has to pretend to be a sex worker. Yet, Sita grows up to seemingly revere Lakhawat and seek his approval as a father figure. This is the kind of psychological messiness Bhatt has frequently sought out in her films, and surely would’ve been ready to confront here. But Alpha has no interest in exploring how victims of abuse might feel attachment to their captors.
There’s an art to silly-smart action films. YRF seemed to have zeroed in on the right team and tone with War (2019) and Pathaan: director Sidharth Anand, writers Sridhar Raghavan and Abbas Tyrewala. But the balance fell off in Tiger 3 and War 2, entrusted to Maneesh Sharma and Ayan Mukerji (just as Anand reteaming with Hrithik Roshan for Fighter without YRF’s steadying hand was a jingoistic mess). Rawail has directed a miniseries, The Railway Men, but Alpha is his first film, and the scale of the project dwarfs whatever individual voice he might’ve had. The film is also missing Tyrewala (Ishita Moitra has written the dialogue, Raghavan and Soumil Shukla the screenplay): “Wolf ki beti wolf hee hoti hai” is a far cry from “Ghungroo toot gaye, Raafe… naach!”
I have difficulty buying Alia Bhatt as an action star. She isn’t physically imposing, but there have been plenty of slight fighters; it’s more a question of choreography and conviction. She was terrific as the sister on a mission in Jigra (2024) because you could believe the force of emotion would sweep that character into physical feats that are beyond her. In Alpha, there’s a weightlessness to the fights that’s not just down to all the wirework. Sita is introduced as a wrecking ball who destroys a whole facility of trained soldiers by herself. It just doesn’t seem credible. Her best fight is on a smaller scale, a cramped indoor tussle with Sharvari, who has a dancer’s agility but is distractingly seeking the camera during action sequences. The worst is the Hrithik Roshan cameo, spoiled in the trailer and, frankly, not worth the trouble of keeping secret.
It’s hard not to imagine YRF rattled by the success of Dhurandhar, a hard-edged spy drama and much more vitriolic vision of Pakistan. Late in Alpha, Pakistan makes a late, and extremely unconvincing, entry. Maybe this was always intended, but I can easily picture a version of the film where it doesn’t feature at all. One of the more fascinating aspects of the Spyverse has been the ambiguity of its view of Pakistan and Pakistanis, some of them cartoon villains, others patriots and even protagonists. It’ll take some resolve to maintain this worldview, and given the existential challenges facing the franchise, I’m not optimistic.
‘Alpha’ is in theatres.
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