Viacom18 Studios and Marflix Pictures’ Fighter (UA) is about the Indian Air Force pilots launching an operation against Pakistani terrorists. Shamsher Pathania alias Patty (Hrithik Roshan) is a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force and is among the best it has. Rakesh Jaisingh alias Rocky (Anil Kapoor) is his senior and he doesn’t like Pathania’s confidence which, according to him (Rocky), reeks of arrogance. Minal Rathore alias Minni (Deepika Padukone) is also a fighter pilot like Pathania and Rocky. She is eager to prove that women are no less than men when it comes to serving the country. Azhar Akhtar (Rishabh Ravinder Sawhney) is an Afghanistani terrorist, working for Pakistan, and he hates India and Indians. Azhar Akhtar launches attacks against India and even succeeds in holding two IAF pilots captive. What happens thereafter?
Siddharth Anand and Ramon Chibb’s story is ordinary. The India-Pakistan base of the story does not appeal much to the viewers, partly because it has been done to death in earlier films and partly because the story has not been penned properly. It would not be wrong to say that as the story unfolds on the screen, the viewers increasingly get the impression that it has been penned with the sole intention of milking the patriotic sentiments of the public. There’s no harm in that but this intention should’ve at least been camouflaged. For, this perceived sentiment comes in the way of the enjoyment of the story by the public. Ramon Chibb’s screenplay is half-baked. It fails to engage the audience so completely that they would feel as if they were a part of the drama. As it is, aerial fights and combats aren’t very exciting for the Indian audience. On top of that, the technical jargon used by the pilots in the film gets irritating because there’s an excess of that, which the common man would find difficult to comprehend. Besides, the drama doesn’t flow naturally so that the viewers get the feeling that the screenplay has been written in a contrived and measured manner to include romance, emotions, drama, action, etc., but that puts off the viewers. Yes, a couple of emotional scenes (like the one in which Pathania meets Minal’s parents, the one in which Minal meets her parents after a long time, the scene in which Pathania promises Taj’s wife to bring back Taj from Pakistan) do tug at the heart strings but they are simply not enough. The audience expects great aerial stunts, heartwarming romance and a patriotic fervour in the drama, most of which are either missing or not good enough. The romantic track is far from heartwarming in spite of the love birds (Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone) being two handsome and beautiful persons. Besides, the antagonist is so weak that it doesn’t seem worth Pathania’s while to even look at him, leave alone eliminate him! Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal’s dialogues and Biswapati Sarkar’s additional dialogues are not half as punch-packed as they ought to have been. Of course, some dialogues are very good but they are few and far between.
Hrithik Roshan looks like a million bucks and also acts very well. But the audience’s heart does not go out to him even in times of his character’s adversity, mainly because the script is half-baked. His dances, as always, are extraordinary. Deepika Padukone does not have as outstanding a role as her stature. She looks fetching and delivers a fine and spontaneous performance, of course. Her dances are very graceful. Anil Kapoor is wonderful as Rocky. Rishabh Ravinder Sawhney doesn’t impress as Azhar Akhtar. Karan Singh Grover is effective as Taj alias Sartaj Gill. Akshay Oberoi performs well as Bash alias Bashir Khan. Sanjeeda Shaikh makes her presence felt as Taj’s wife. Ashutosh Rana leaves a lovely mark in a brief special appearance as Minal’s father. Geeta Agarwal, as his wife, is superb. Sharib Hashmi has his moments as an Air Force pilot. Seerat Mast (as Naina Jaisingh alias NJ) performs ably. Geeta Sodhi (as mother of Bash) is natural. Vinay Varma (as Debu) is impressive. Mahesh Shetty (as Unni), Banveen Singh (as Sukhi), Karan Sharma (as Jeet), Nishant Khanduja (as Birdie), Lokesh Batta (as Sandy), Talat Aziz (as Shamsher’s father), Chandan K. Anand (as Nauty), Sachin Yadav (as Hamid), Aditi Sharma (as Neha Joshi alias NJ), Chandrashekhar Dutta (as Zarina Begum; he has a wonderful voice) and Mushtaq Kak (as Masood Abrar) lend fair support.
Siddharth Anand’s direction lacks depth. The film seems like scenes have been fitted into a recipe. Most of the scenes do not flow naturally but look like they have been incorporated in a template format. Vishal-Shekhar’s music is good but it definitely falls short of the bigness of the film because the audience expect nothing short of super-hit songs in a film of this canvas. None of the songs is even close to being a chartbuster. Kumaar’s lyrics are nice. Song picturisations (choreography: Bosco-Caesar, Remo D’Souza and Piyush-Shazia; song direction: Robbie Grewal) are excellent. Background music (by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara) is wonderful. Satchith Paulose’s cinematography and Ayanka Bose’s additional cinematography are extraordinary. Action scenes (choreographed by Seayoung Oh, Parvez Shaikh and Sunil Rodrigues) are thrilling but it must be added that the Indian audience doesn’t applaud aerial stunts and fights the way it does hand-to-hand combats. Rajat Poddar’s production designing, and Kailash Sahu’s art direction are appropriate. The 3D effects (by Prime Focus (DNEG)) are not spectacular at all. Aarif Shaikh’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Fighter is not half as exciting as it should’ve been. It lacks the fire of an action film and the patriotic fervour of an India-versus-Pakistan film. As such, it will not be able to score at the ticket windows, considering its big budget, huge canvas and scale.
Released on 25-1-’24 at Regal (daily 4 shows), Inox (daily 19 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Publicity: very good. Opening: below the mark. …….Also released all over. Opening was not up to the mark, partly because of an odd-day, non-holiday release and partly because of the very limited excitement and heat generated for the film.