AIYAARI-Reviews/BO - Page 2

• Samrudhi Ghosh
• New Delhi
• February 16, 2018
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After several delays, Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Aiyaary is in theatres. Will it live up to the expectations? Here is our Aiyaary movie review.

Perhaps the best description of Aiyaary lies in a quote from William Shakespeare's famous drama, Macbeth: "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing..." The Neeraj Pandey film, with its half-baked subplots, sluggish pace and incongruencies is a thriller without thrills.

Aiyaary revolves around Major Jai Bakshi (Sidharth Malhotra), an idealistic soldier who is disillusioned when he finds out, after listening to surveillance tapes, that corruption has spread its tentacles even into the Indian Army. Disillusioned, he goes rogue, and his mentor, Colonel Abhay Singh (Manoj Bajpayee), is tasked with nabbing him.

You would be wrong, if you were expecting a fast-paced cat-and-mouse chase. Aiyaary meanders at its own sweet pace, with the only urgency in the film coming from the intense background music. There are sequences, like the mission in Cairo, which do not tie up with the main plot in any way. The romantic track between Sidharth Malhotra and Rakul Preet is also completely unnecessary.

Sidharth's character is rather baffling. He is referred to as one of the best in the team, but is careless enough to steal data from his own unit's server room without disabling the CCTV cameras.

He crosses over to the dark side when he unearths the corruption around and takes a cut of Rs 10 crore for himself, but at the same time, claims that he cannot be a part of "vardi pehen ke chori". He also mouths dialogues like, "Mere paas aur koi raasta nahi hai" and "Mujhe gaddaar ghoshit kiya jayega", as if he is being trapped into it.

And for all the 'respect' he has for Manoj Bajpayee's character - Sidharth says that he will never stop calling him 'sir' till his last breath and Manoj can put a bullet in his head if he has a problem with that - he does not hesitate to sell his mentor and his team's secrets.

Aiyaary is consistently buoyed by Manoj Bajpayee, who brings the only enjoyment in an otherwise insipid film. Sidharth Malhotra has exactly one expression throughout, while Rakul Preet's presence is strictly ornamental. The grade-A supporting cast, comprising stellar performers like Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Adil Hussain, is thoroughly wasted.

This is Neeraj Pandey's weakest film so far, especially the shoddy writing. Ironically, he had called it his career-best, in interviews before the film's release.

After endlessly meandering and making Candy Crush seem like a far more tempting option than watching what is happening on screen, Aiyaary comes to an end rather jerkily, and the climax feels like a forced attempt at closure.

Unless you have lots of free time on your hands (and money), it is best to give this one a miss.