Aiyaary Review : Manoj Bajpayee Shines In Gripping But Unconvincing Tale Of Treachery

Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary is like the Hollywood films with great acting and set design, but where you are trying to concentrate and struggle to figure out what the plot is most of the time. You don't know where the story is going or what the context or background really is. Maybe you're missing something, but you wait for the director to explain it. Except that, it doesn't happen. Aiyaary is a tale of treachery and treason, and it is gripping for the most part but gets to be a drag in the second half. Too many back and forth situations add to the confusion.

The story begins with Colonel Abhay Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) and his special task force being pulled up because one of their men, Major Jai Bakshi (Sidharth Malhotra) has gone rogue. Jai, who had been tapping the phones and computers of the major army officers to uncover a scam, gets disillusioned along the way when he finds out about an arms deal proposition, and ditches the army. He is under disguise and with his girlfriend Sonia (Rakul Preet). The entire film is based on finding Jai and figuring out why he did what he did.

 

Manoj Bajpayee shines as the honest but "aiyaar" army officer. He carries the film on his shoulders, as is expected of him. Sidharth Malhotra may well have this film as one of his better performances, 'cos he needs that right now. But he is not convincing as to why his character went rogue. Either be wicked or vulnerable to showcase it. 

Rakul Preet is good as Sonia but her part is not written well. Why does a normal, urban IT professional / hacker believe in the treason that her army officer boyfriend plans to commit? For the money or for her love for him? What about the country? It seems unconvincing.

Beauty queen Pooja Chopra as army officer Maya has good screen presence and shows she can act. She could topline a film or TV show / web series like, say Quantico or Test Case.

Naseeruddin Shah as Baburao has much less of a role in Aiyaary than Pandey's A Wednesday where he was so remarkable as the common man who takes it upon himself to tackle terrorists. But the length of a role has never mattered for an actor like Naseer Sa'ab to shine through. And he does. So do other important actors in the film - Anupam Kher as Tariq Ali, Vikram Gokhale as the army chief, Kumud Mishra as the former army officer who is the bad man along with another ex-army man and weapons dealer, played by Adil Hussain. Good actors like Nivedita Bhattacharya as the journalist and Juhi Babbar as Abhay Singh's wife hardly have screen time. 

Pandey, the director of films like A Wednesday, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and Special Chabbis has, of course, made a very authentic looking film in Aiyaary. Having said that, the premise of a traitor in the Indian army who deserts it because of the corruption in the forces and the government keeps you hooked only initially. The editing and interconnection between scenes, incidents and dialogues is seamless. But you patiently wait for something exciting to be revealed, only to find that the climax is disappointing.

The riveting background score helps keep your interest in the film. But in the end, the climax turns out to be sort of an anti-climax. Maybe the public would've liked to see (Spoiler) Manoj Bajpayee kill Sidharth Malhotra. That would have made Aiyaary what people were expecting from it. After all, the right thrills have to be provided to the audience after you have piqued their interest.

One has a feeling that Neeraj has not gone all the way in depicting the corruption in the arms deals or the way things can go wrong in the army. He has stopped himself, it seems, for one cannot make an anti-establishment and anti-armed forces film, can we? There is a dialogue where Jai points out the corruption in the army for "70 years". Obviously the years after the Indian independence and the years largely in a certain political rule. But here, too, Aiyaary falls short of taking sides politically. Is it a pro-Modi film? Or is it simply portraying the point-of-view of the Generation Y in the Indian Army who are easily frustrated with the age-old system? Go figure. 

Ideologically, Aiyaary promotes honesty and the "common man" or the tax-payer whose money is used to buy weapons in the army. But the message is very unclear and the name of the film, meaning trickery, is what the main message of the Aiyaary turns out to be. 

Rating: 2.5/5 (One-time watch)