AK VS AK - REVIEW

Bollywood's attempt in making a Metaphysical film is a successful one with Vikramaditya Motwane's AK vs AK.

It has an untested and intriguing premise where the line between real and reel are often blurred and overlapped.

It creates an eccentric world where characters go through a mad run of emotions and a lot of chaos, tension, and upheaval in store for them.

All of this captured in real-time with real personalities showcasing a completely different shade that is unseen, exaggerated, quirky.

Both AK's ( Anurag Kashyap and Anil Kapoor) decide to listen to their alter egos for an exaggerated version of their true self in this film within a film.

A critically acclaimed director kidnaps the daughter of a big humongous star and asks him to search for her in real time to seek vengeance for a backlash, humiliation caused by the actor in a public spat.

This live hostage thriller is engineered by A critically acclaimed director, who unleashes his dark psychopathic side just like his on-screen stories making life tough for a commercial, bankable actor.

This film with such a complex plot sees both of them taking jibes, potshots at one another while racing against time in search of a hostage.

Vikram Aditya Motwane handling the direction and with screenplay co-managed by Avinash Sampath envision a conflict where the chase for the hostage becomes a way to reflect upon the perceptions which we have of the twin leads.

Motwane Pushes the mass hero ( Anil Kapoor ) to be humane, real, and vulnerable in this chase against the time.

The quest for finding her daughter sees him at his most vulnerable self where his stardom takes a backseat comes as an obstacle.

The Director engineering the live hostage thriller is at his sinister best trying to pin him down in making the quest futile.

The search is real and the problems faced are real in this mad film within the film world.

The movie running 1 hr 48 minutes long has documentary-style cinematography to give the entire chase a real-time stimulation.

It has been successful in eliminating polished, stylish frames for natural, raw camerawork making us truly captive in this thriller.

Swapnil Sonawane does a fine job with his camerawork.

To aptly cover the meta aspect of the film, The movie has its fair share of cameos of family members or close associates of the leading cast.

The premise is intriguing and with a crisp, engaging screenplay that has its fair share of dramatic twist in the last 4O minutes bracing up for a big reveal in the end.

This is where curtains behind this film within the film are unfolded and trust me it is something which no one saw as coming.

The tables are turned often with the critically acclaimed director also seeing himself in a tough spot and with his ploy acting as his Achilles heel at certain moments.

This AK vs AK battle takes a new form with each of the two titular characters having their moments of control and upheaval.

There are references of Daniel day-lewis, Martin Scorsese, and Tony Montana even Both AK's past works in this chase striking the right notes with the audience.

It also speaks about the ability of director Vikramaditya Motwane to incorporate a hell of a lot of inferences, influences he has drawn in his filmmaking style.

Before leading to the main cast performances, the film had a bunch of cameos from the likes of Harshvardhan Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Boney Kapoor, Nawazudin Siddiqui.

These cameos do cause an impact on the plot. The most prominent one is of Harshvardhan Kapoor asking Anurag Kashyap to direct Bhavesh Joshi part 2 instead of the original director Vikramaditya Motwane.

Speaking about performances, Anurag Kashyap efficiently brings a dark, sinister, cynical side of himself. We are in awe of the sadist in him engineering Sonam's kidnap and subsequent hostage thriller.

He makes us root for him for his ability to put Anil Kapoor in a dire situation. Anurag as an actor shines equally as the dialogue writer of the film.

The dialogues between them serve as a good way of understanding the character's motivations, perceptions about their actions.

Anil Kapoor is the standout performer of the film. This untested novel premise sees the veteran actors honest, vulnerable, and down to earth side of the commercial star.

He was able to convey his fear, worry, anguish regarding her daughter's kidnaps effectively. The man was able to make us empathize with him in his suffering he had to endure in this chase.

The actor pulls off this complex role with aplomb making a strong case about his acting credential just not being limited to his commercial potboilers.

Yogita Bihani shines in her role of Kashyap Camerawomen.

On the whole, AK vs AK does tick the right boxes in making this experiment a successful one. The makers deserve credit for exploring a genre that is untested in the Indian context and with a hope that this would be not the last one.