Neeraj Pandey, the director of A Wednesday, Baby and MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, returns with a spy thriller, Aiyaary. Manoj Bajpayee and Sidharth Malhotra play the leads in the movie. Aiyaary also boasts of an ensemble cast in Naseeruddin Shah, Rakul Preet, Vikram Gokhale, Kumud Mishra, Pooja Chopra, Adil Hussain and Juhi Babbar Soni. The movie had gone through various release postponements, thanks to clashes with other movies and issues with Censor Board. Now that we finally got the opportunity to watch the movie, here's our review,

Disillusioned with the corruption in the system, Major Jai Bakshi (Sidharth Malhotra) of the counter-intelligence unit goes rogue, stealing data that could compromise various army operations. This includes the existence of his own secret unit, that angers his commander and mentor Abhay Singh (Manoj Bajpayee). Now on the run with his hacker girlfriend Sonia (Rakul Preet), Jai starts his own spy games to take on the system with his guru hot on his heels. Who will win this cat-and-mouse game is what the rest of the movie is all about.

A few years back, Neeraj Pandey broke into the Bollywood scene to much applause with his gritty thriller A Wednesday. He later made an engaging spy thriller in Baby (though it had shades of Argo). A movie like Aiyaary should have been quite safe in his hands. When Bollywood usually shies away from showing the army in a bad light, Pandey goes gutsy in acknowledging that even the forces that protect us is also not averse to having grey shades.

Aiyaary is strong when it throws shade at certain real-life scandals like the Adarsh society scam, arms deals corruption, politicians-media nexus (which explains why Censor Board wanted the Defence Ministry to review the movie first) etc. These scenes as well as the intelligence unit portions are portrayed in an engaging manner in the first half. However, by the time the second half concludes, Aiyaary doesn't go all out at baring its teeth at these issues. The Adarsh society-like scam forms the crux of the entire plot, but it is made to look like a huge reveal near the climax, which makes the whole thing go out on a whimper.

This also compromises why Sidharth's character behaves the way he does. He is shown stealing important data, goes rogue, makes double deals and then we find out that the success of his whole plan depends on a taped revelation. We never understand why he became so disillusioned from his surveillance duty, since he is expected to come across discrepancies in that task. Or what he really plans to do with the rest of the stolen data. A little pep talk with his mentor could have saved him (and us) a lot of fuss. By the end, his character comes quite hollow and brash, as the movie was more interested in photographing him well rather than establishing him as a proper spy.

It is not that Aiyaary is bereft of smart moments, but most of them involve the towering talent they call Manoj Bajpayee. He is the only one in the whole movie who shows complete dedication to his role and he has the power to even make (surprisingly) uninspired dialogues so clapworthy. It's for this brilliant performer I would even want to recommend Aiyaary to anyone. The writers seem to be charged up when penning sequences focusing on this actor. Just check out that scene where he secretly intimates his wife about his intentions through a code and you know what a movie Aiyaary could have been with more such scenes.

Other actors in the cast however, don't stand much of a chance. The talented Kumud Mishra and Adil Hussain don't get much to do as the antagonists of the piece, while Rakul Preet and Pooja Chopra just hang around. Naseeruddin Shah's cameo feels like a pale imitation of his A Wednesday monologue. In fact, the whole movie suffers from A Wednesday and Baby hangover.

Technically too, Aiyaary is quite inconsistent, just like Pandey's direction. The editor seems to have gone on a vacation as the movie crawls its way to the finishing point. There are unnecessary flashbacks sequences, including an easily avoidable romantic track, that add nothing of relevance to the plot. Also the final monologue could have trimmed off quite a few minutes. The use of Steadicam helps in making some sequences interesting, but the cinematographer goes overboard in using it even for simple conversation shots. The background score is just a series of bangs.

BTW, why were there so many slo mo scenes and elongated sequences of characters just walking and walking? You could have easily saved an hour trimming those off. There are a lot of continuity flaws (a man's beard grows thick overnight) and the CGI is flawed (you can easily make out the green screen in some scenes)

Lastly, for a movie named Aiyaary that means master of disguise, there are only three occasions when the lead stars change appearances. Wouldn't Gumrah made a better name for that's what the screenplay was trying to do with our senses?

Yay!

- The one and only Manoj Bajpayee

- Some smart sequences

- For the gumption to take on some real-life scams (though Aiyaary doesn't go all out on them)

- It has just one song (even that was needless)

Nay!

- Sidharth's unconvincing protagonist (and performance)

- Too lengthy

- Shoddy editing and inconsistent camera-work

- Supporting cast not put to good use

- Unnecessary slo-mo shots

- Loopholes (a UK post code is made to sound like co-ordinates of a desolate building) and continuity issues

- A limp conclusion

Final thoughts

Hidden under that excessive length, average direction and a convoluted screenplay was a smart, gutsy spy thriller that could have been one fantastic game-changer for Bollywood. But what we can only take away from Aiyaary is Manoj Bajpayee being brilliant as always, and we really don't need this movie to state the obvious! A damn Wasted Opportunity for sure!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 16, 2018 11:49 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).