With just one day away from Republic Day, we’re all set to get a film that will narrate how a terrorist group from Pakistan is planning a deadly attack on India and how we would need a team to stop that. This time, it’s about Air Force aviators coming together to derail the calamitous mission planned by the neighboring country.
I’ve watched the film till the interval and have mixed feelings about everything that’s happening till now. Let’s talk about what’s working and what’s not without any spoilers.
It’s 2019, and we have a team of air warriors which is assembled to answer the Pulwama attack done by Pakistan. We’ve Patty (Hrithik Roshan), a pilot with an attitude problem because he doesn’t consider himself as one as he’s a ‘fighter.’
Imagine if Kabir from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara wasn’t an Investment Banker and had applied to be an Air Fighter, which made his personality a lot more boring than he was; you’ll get Patty. Minni (Deepika Padukone) is a Rescue Pilot (à la Jahnvi Kapoor in Gunjan Saxena) whose main aim is to develop a relationship with Patty because, apart from she doesn’t have much to do.
As predictable as it can get!
Taj (Karan Singh Grover) and Bash (Akshay Oberoi) are secondary team members who don’t really have much to do because it’s Patty’s show all the way. Ramon Chibb & Siddharth Anand’s story is as generic as it can get. You have got a mission in hand, you have got a team, you have got a plan, and you’ve predictable execution for the same.
Does the USP work?
The film’s USP and its aerial action sequences don’t add any excitement to the flow of the film. Makers depend heavily on the in-flight conversations more than what’s happening outside (similar to Top Gun). When they do, the scenes depend on heavy VFX, which is a mixed bag.
What’s missing?
The internal fights of the characters are hollow and don’t connect till now. The second half of the Fighter needs to be really good to bring this up. Till now, it’s a typical Siddharth Anand film minus the brilliance of its charming leads like Hrithik Roshan’s own Rajveer in Bang Bang & Shah Rukh Khan‘s Pathaan in Pathaan.
Stick to this space for a full Fighter movie review! (If you’re reading this after a few hours of the article’s publication, you’ll get the review interlinked above.)
