Ak vs Ak - 2020
Directed by: Vikramaditya Motwane
Ak vs ak is an intriguing experimental film by Vikramaditya Motwane. Who made pretty solid independent films before including; the gritty and dark Udaan; a masterful coming of age drama, and Trapped which was also very skillful film starring, one of my favourite bollywood actor Rajkumar Rao. This film also boasts solid cast and team. And most interesting part or member being independent filmmaking giant and Motwane's friend, Anurag Kashyap. There was lot of hype around the film, which is surely justified just knowing who made it and who are involved in it.
To say that the film was mediocre would be an insult to such a welcomed experimental film in Bollywood, but it would also be quite inappropriate to praise just for the sake of who made it, and ignoring the many obvious faults it had. There was great sense of enthusiasm around the film before its release, which I also shared in huge amount, but the film, didnt repayed to that enthusiasm. It was a great concept, sure. The people involved were best in the bussiness. But Ak vs Ak was just all over and it never was the film we wanted or they claimed it to be. It was pastiche of fragmented, disjoint and energetic ideas. The ideas were decent, the intentions were sincere but it was sadly a poor implementation of those exciting if not original ideas.
Lets talk about plot, which is so hyped about for its freshness and uniqueness. But if you have seen bit of other things, you would know that it is not the cleverest or freshest thing in cinema. Ak, Anil Kapoor, plays his real stereotyped, exaggerated version of himself and another Ak, Anurag Kashyap plays his version. Make no mistake these aren't their real imitations but narrowly stereotyped versions of themselves. The setting is real, the people are real, the fame they have is real, but at the same time everything in the movie is a fiction. They are just playing themselves, not being themselves.
Just jump on the incident which makes the story kick start. During an interview, Ak and Ak somehow manages to have a feud between themselves, on a reason which feels so unrealistic that we know how rest of the film is going to play. The feud goes on to become abusive; and Anurag, with his rage, spite and conceit plans to revenge Anil and make him helpless by kidnapping Sonam, her daughter. While it was not enough for Anurag, he also threatens to to kill Sonam if he, Anil, do not comply with him to let shoot all Anil's reaction while Anil tries to find her daughter. This was Anurag's next movie material. He want to create some exciting, revolutionary cinema. But soon enough Anil becomes desperate, nearly gets killed, nearly kills Anurag, still do not find Sonam. Telling whether he finds her or not would be a spoiler, so I would stop right there. But its all so unconvincing.
There were in fact lot of interesting things, but the faults of the film overshadowed those good points. And faults being quite hard to ignore. The major being the poor camera work, it was hand held camera and was shot like a documentary. You dont have to be expert in cinematography to say that it just didnt look good, it felt odd and a gimmick. Swearing was also one gimmick in the movie; lot of unnecessary and forced swearing. Acting wasn't great either, many of the scenes looked as if they shot it in one take, and director might have said, "that looks workable, lets move on". Just not convincing. And those poorly executed fight scenes between Anurag and Anil, just unbearable, especially so because you adore their works.
It is in no way, a bad film, far from it. It have its own special moments and its own faults. But when you watch their previous works, you would just want to forget that this film existed at all. It doesn't fit into the filmography, neither of Motwane nor Kashyap. And if you adore this film because of its 'freshness' and 'unique story', watch The Game(1997) and Birdman(2014). You will have a totally different opinion about Ak vs Ak.
Rating: ★★½
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