To even try describing some of the things that happen in the new Bollywood action film, War, would simply not do it justice. It’s a film that pretty much consists entirely of sequences that are designed to make you sound like a crazy person as you try talking about it to your friends. And I sincerely mean that in the best possible way. While I did enjoy Hobbs and Shaw fine enough, War provides the kind of over-the-top blockbuster thrills and earnest melodrama that makes you realize just how unimaginative some western action filmmakers still are when it comes to this particular brand of spectacle.
Admittedly, the plot of War is nothing to write home about. It’s like you took bits and pieces of a few Mission: Impossible movies, some of the Fast and Furious entries, and stitched them together like a Godfrey Ho film with a Michael Bay budget. Basic setup is we have a Khalid (Tiger Shroff), a RAW agent who has been tasked to track down and eliminate his mentor, Kabir (Hrithik Roshan), who has apparently gone rogue. Of course, as the story unfolds, we find out there’s more to it than we may have initially thought.
The film, which is directed by Siddharth Anand, who also co-wrote it with Shridhar Raghavan and Abbas Tyrewala, does a pretty good job at grabbing you from the moment it starts, which establishes Kabir as a traitor, and swiftly introducing the young buck, Khalid, as the man to stop him by having him literally fly kick through a window, and single-handedly eliminating two gangs in the middle of a narcotics deal, which is achieved with an impressive tracking shot (or at least edited to look like a tracking shot). Like many mainstream Bollywood films, there is not a hint of irony or camera winking as the film pulls out all the stops with creating images that are just unabashedly cool, complete with extensive slow-mo and stoic posing for the camera.
The heart of the film lies with the relationship between Kabir and Khalid. The latter of which has some baggage with his backstory that connects with Kabir, and it makes their initial meeting to be a bit hostile, but Khalid’s commitment to the cause and unflinching patriotism convinces Kabir that his doubts were unfounded. But because this is a film that goes the extra mile in pretty much every regard, their friendship is drenched with homoerotic tension, with constant scenes of them gazing at one another, the film taking any and all excuse to get the two men shirtless, and the emotional turmoil that Khalid experiences as he reconciles with the fact that his mission is to kill the man he looked up to so much. It’s laid on so thick, the characters from 300 and Top Gun would blush, it’s practically one sex scene away from turning into full blown slash fiction. None of this is a criticism by the way, all this ultimately served to make the film that much more endearing to me.
I don’t want to give away all the big action beats, which is also why I’m only linking the teaser as opposed to the full trailer, because part of the joy is seeing the film put pieces in place for these larger-than-life sequences that, like something from Mission: Impossible or Fast and Furious, spans the globe, and features setpieces ranging from claustrophobic brawls to motorcycle chases through a city. The stunt work and choreography is really solid, and while the camera work can occasionally get a touch too shaky for my liking, most of the action is captured well, and I never found myself lost or confused by what I was looking at.
There’s not a whole lot going on under the surface in War, though it does lean on the kind of nationalism that is often featured in Bollywood films, though it’s arguably nowhere near as Islamophobic as some of its peers. It knows exactly what it wants to be, and it delivers a rock ‘em sock ‘em action epic that probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you sit down and think about each plot point, but you’re so into the twisty-turny groove of the film that you don’t really care, and the two stars, aside from being ungodly ripped are super charismatic and easily carry the film, from the action to the dancing, all along its weird and wild journey. This is easily one of the most effortlessly entertaining two-and-a-half hours I’ve spent in a theater all year, and fans of these kinds of broad, over-the-top action blockbusters will find a lot to like here, even if you don’t normally watch Bollywood productions.