Akira Review

Akira movie review:

Akira is the story of this self-reliant, silent yet strong girl who gets caught up in a bad situation through no fault of her own.

This movie is all about performances. Sonakshi Sinha has done a phenomenal job. She has done this role justice. In fact, it’s safe to say this film is meant for her. No one else could do this role.

That is very high praise for an actress hasn’t been known (in the past) for her acting ability. This role is hers just like Kareena had ‘Chameli’ A role she was meant to play.

She makes us emphasize and understand her character rather well. The most watchable part of this film is her acting and role.

Anurag Kashyap plays the villain in this piece and he also is quite realistic. The joke about him always rolling a joint is very on the point for all those who know the person, he truly does always have a joint on hand. His acting is realistic, he isn’t shown as this over the top villain, he is rather matter of fact and corrupt, killer cop. But NOT making him over the top, works for the film. We can imagine such cops must exist in real life too. His dialogs are some of the best in the film. Maybe he wrote them himself, but they are witty, evil and pun at the same time.

The movie is watchable for these two characters alone.

The other side roles are well done too. Acting wise everyone performs. Even Konkona’s small role and her moral ambiguity is covered rather well.

Special mention to the child actor who plays the kid version of Akira. Not only is her casting spot on, as she DOES look like a child version of sonakshi, she acts rather well too. She is rather good in her role and she could have used some more screen time.

Now we come to the plot and story of the film. This is where the film falters a bit. The plot and story do make sense, but they also go from realistic to coincidental to unbelievable. Characters are often introduced, but their plot line goes nowhere. They get no resolution or screen time. Many side characters populate the film, promising some kind of resolution, but then they disappear from the screen.

SPOILERS.

Akira goes to college and has some trouble with a few college students who behave like goons. They don’t serve a purpose in the finale or anywhere else, other than to display her fighting skills. That’s bad screen writing.

Akira’s Bhabhi is also shown to be a prim and proper lady who is secretly quite bitchy. Her storyline also goes no-where, she is made a background character.

Such gaffs in the script make the film uneven.

This could have been a very tight thriller and at times it does work, but it loses pace often and the ending is very anticlimactic, it promises some kind of showdown and ends with a self-sacrificing whimper.

At the end, people will be left asking, what was the point of the film then? No one learns from Akira’s strength or no one is affected by it. She herself is strong, she remains strong, but that is established in the start of the film itself.

Overall: The film has no silly song and dance, it portrayal of Sonakshi and her character is rather well done. The actress herself has done a phenomenal job and the movie is not bad. Its flawed but watchable.

Rating: 6.5/10. Better scripting and a more coherent character arch would have benefited this film. Watch this film to one of the better portrayals of a strong female lead. This film has no hero. Sonakshi herself is the hero. She didn’t a co-star to make her role stronger.