Rediff critic Sukanya Verma shreds the Alia Bhatt and Sharvari vehicle for recycling Hollywood tropes while keeping its heroines chained to male-dictated narratives.
MUMBAI, July 3 — Yash Raj Films handed their blockbuster spy franchise to female leads for the first time, but Alpha fails completely to grant its heroines actual independence. Alia Bhatt and Sharvari star in the highly anticipated spin-off. It hasn’t just stumbled. It crashed. Director Shiv Rawail borrows heavily from Hollywood heavyweights like Black Widow and La Femme Nikita. But underneath the relentless gunfire, male-dictated narratives still trap these female protagonists. Sukanya Verma’s scathing review for Rediff.com exposes a studio that wants praise for feminist empowerment without doing the actual work.
The YRF spy universe historically relies on crowd-pleasing crossovers and massive set pieces. Verma notes that past films like Tiger, Pathaan, and War masked their wafer-thin plots through the sheer globetrotting charisma of their male superstars. The franchise’s women always accepted secondary status. Katrina Kaif delivered a towel-clad fistfight in Tiger 3. Deepika Padukone chased enemies on ice skates in Pathaan. They stole scenes, yet they couldn’t command the main storyline. Alpha finally puts women on the franchise poster. So why do men in power whether fathers or foes still dictate every major move these women make?
Rawail delivers what Verma calls a half-hearted diversion from the standard male-dominated formula. Bhatt possesses undeniable acting prowess in other genres, but she doesn’t fit naturally into this larger-than-life super-soldier mold. Rediff reports her character runs entirely on empty attitude and endless gunfire. The film struggles to carve out any distinct identity. Audiences won’t just recognize recycled beats from Black Widow; they’ll spot action tropes pulled directly from Hanna, Stranger Things, and remarkably, Kung Fu Panda.
Verma’s verdict confirms the studio’s worst fear: it’s a completely botched opportunity.
Fans routinely forgave the weak storylines of earlier YRF spy movies because the massive scale offered an irresistible guilty pleasure. Verma argues that Alpha entirely lacks this crucial, star-powered safety net. The required suspension of disbelief doesn’t unlock a thrilling cinematic ride for the audience. It only exposes a generic actioner that desperately tries to keep a spinoff machine alive. They’ve given these women the faces of a massive franchise, only to let male shadows pull every string.
