AK vs. AK
director – Vikramaditya Motwane
To emit – Anil Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap
More akin to a crazy Dogme 95 experiment than the lustful Bollywood brawl promised by its misguided marketing campaign, AK vs AK is a witty but inconsistent film that achieves moments of cinematic magic, but often struggles to maintain the integrity of its internal logic.
Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and starring Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap as exaggerated versions of themselves, AK vs AK is a gonzo game that isn’t afraid to bite the feeding hand. The film industry, he suggests, spends more time creating fake idols than memorable cinema, all serving an audience whose loyalty can change for a penny.
Watch the trailer for AK vs AK here
‘Shameless’ is the word Kapoor uses to describe himself in an early scene, his eyes clouded by memories of a glorious past. That is the secret of its sustained success. He’s on stage with Kashyap in a MAMI interaction, where his conflicting ideas about filmmaking come to the fore. While Kapoor, a product of the 80s, is someone who believes that the star is the most important component of a movie’s (commercial) success, Kashyap fights back by reciting the author’s theory.
As tempers rage, Motwane allows the exchange to escalate, which could help provide the necessary context for viewers unfamiliar with these two men.
In many ways, it is impossible to appreciate the full scope of the image without having at least a superficial idea of who Kashyap and Kapoor are. However, more than anything else, Motwane takes advantage of the impressions that have been created of them in the public, sometimes in conjunction with the press, and at other times, without their consent.
Kashyap in the movie is still bitter about the fact that Kapoor passed on his cutting edge scripts many years ago, when he was the new kid on the block and Kapoor had a ‘superstar’ image to protect. But times have changed and the status quo has changed. Now, Kashyap is making movies for Netflix and is revered by college kids with strong broadband connections. Meanwhile, Kapoor’s days as the lead are long gone. So when the actor suggests that Kashyap hire him for a project, the filmmaker, without even bothering to look up from his phone, says that he is no longer interested in working with him.
An act of meanness sets the AK vs. AK plot in motion.
This boiling anger reaches a boiling point in that MAMI scenario, when in an act of deep meanness, Kashyap commits a professional kamikaze by throwing a glass of water in Kapoor’s face. The incident sparks outrage in the industry and Kashyap immediately becomes an outcast. Even Nawazuddin Siddiqui won’t risk working with him.
Fueled by resentment, Kashyap hatches a cowardly plan. He kidnaps Kapoor’s daughter, actor Sonam Kapoor, and gives him until dawn to track her down. Then he sets the rules: he’ll follow Kapoor relentlessly, with a cameraman in tow, and film his every move. Together, they will make a hostage thriller like no other the world has ever seen.
There is a rather sinister tone to AK vs AK. It all hinges on the premise that Kashyap, who has cultivated a very particular personality on Twitter (one day he recommends a good movie, the next he plans a massive protest) might be crazy enough to do something like this. At one point in the movie, and I was surprised they chose to retain this moment, considering its implications in the real world, Kashyap punches a woman in the face in a fit of rage.
To be clear, he’s essentially playing a fictional character, but still, he’s a fictional character that is joined at the hip with the real man. He is a fictional character named Anurag Kashyap. For whatever reason, hitting a woman once is recorded more emphatically than the dozens of times he trades blows with Kapoor.
But in addition to physical violence, the script calls for psychological harm to be inflicted on each other as well. Sarcastic comments are made about careers and personal lives. There are a couple of throwaway mentions that Kashyap’s brother, Abhinav, is the only filmmaker in the family (there are three) to have directed a hit. Motwane doesn’t even spare himself, and in a terrific sequence mid-film – one featuring a scene-stealing Harshvardhan Kapoor cameo – a joke is made at the expense of Bhavesh Joshi Superhero.
In the film’s most twisted moments, Kashyap appears to be channeling infamous filmmaker Lars von Trier. His character in AK vs AK often reminded me of von Trier in The Five Obstructions, an experimental documentary in which the Danish enfant terrible basically played a Bond villain. Kashyap acts only occasionally, but it’s no wonder that he routinely draws strong performances from the cast in his own films; he himself is quite a skilled interpreter.
Anil Kapoor lights the stage at AK vs AK.
And then there’s the scene sequence, perhaps the best and most momentous part of the film. Following the breadcrumbs left for him in Mumbai, Kapoor finds himself at a neighborhood Christmas party, following the trail of a taxiwallah. He gets on a stage where a band is performing and grabs the microphone. “Have you seen this man?” he asks the assembled crowd and realizes that he won’t get any answers unless he gives them what they want. And what they want is for him, Anil Kapoor, to sing for their dinner.
A strange euphoria seizes him, and he dances like a maniac, while his classic song from the movie Ram Lakhan resounds from the speaker. His movements are driven by desperation, and his voice trembles with fear for Sonam as he submits to the crowd; he owes his success to these people, and they have him gripped by the gonads. It’s a tremendous performance, and the expression on my face reflected Kashyap’s shocked reaction in the corner of the frame.
But the message is clear: You, the paying public, have dehumanized celebrities. At various times in the movie, Janta randomly approaches Kapoor for street selfies, ignoring the condition he’s in, as he chases track after track, beaten like a pinball by the city he loves.
Also Read: Drowned Movie Review: Anurag Kashyap Demonstrates Demonetization In New Netflix Movie
But cracks begin to appear in the film’s third act, when the premise threatens to crumble from its own presumption. The characters begin to behave irrationally, and instead of taking the path of least resistance, the movie confusingly heads in a direction that not only affects what has already happened, but pushes the plot further into the realm of the. fantasy. Scrap its desi Black Mirror premise – replacement satire is replaced with crude shenanigans, and instead takes a bite out of One Cut of the Dead, a cult Japanese film about a film crew making a zombie thriller.
AK vs AK must have sounded like a home run on paper, but it’s not as well built as it could have been and the spins are somewhat telegraphed. For all his wits, he can’t help but feel like B-material – a dusty old idea fixed for the age of streaming.
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The author tweets @RohanNaahar
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