AK vs. AK
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Yogita Bihani
Director: Vikramaditya Motwane
Easily one of the best Hindi movies of the year, and definitely the most unique with a main star in it, AK Vs AK has Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap playing themselves amid intense emotions, surreal moments, and twisted storylines. It’s different, nice, mind-blowing, and a total confusion between fact and fiction.
It all starts when an aging superstar AK (Anil Kapoor) gets into a heated argument with another AK (Anurag Kashyap), a self-obsessed filmmaker, and Kashyap kidnaps Kapoor’s daughter, actress Sonam Kapoor (Sonam Kapoor). Then a manhunt begins that somehow attempts to expose the paradoxes of a Bollywood star’s life and how they are expected to “act” even during depressing times.
Director Vikramaditya Motwane, whose handheld camera locations with gloomy surround lighting in Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, blew me away, he’s in a better mood here as he gets voyeuristic, sensational, and under the skin. I forgot to tell you that Motwane has a representative in Yogita Bihani, Kashyap’s assistant in the film, who is recording Kapoor’s movements.
Of course, some restrictions have been maintained, but Motwane has stretched out as far as he could as Kapoor and Kashyap flaunt a self-deprecating humor that almost verges on unsettling viewers. For example, Kapoor mocks Bihani for being Kashyap’s girlfriend, or Harshvardhan Kapoor, Anil Kapoor’s son, who tries to impress Kashyap with his acting skills in the middle of a crisis.
The other side of a star’s life has also been expressed as viewers keep asking Kapoor to do his famous Ram Lakhan steps, a song that came over three decades ago. The perception of a Bollywood star as the ultimate public influence has been questioned. It’s so ironic and tragic to see Kapoor dancing to please the public in the middle of the search for his missing daughter.
There are plenty of Kashyap jokes too, like his brother being the most commercially successful filmmaker in the family. At times, he even tries to look past Kashyap’s tough exterior of being a frank and perennially angry person. It’s hard to know how much of this “acting” is. Top marks to Motwane for making his actors comfortable enough to make them visit the dark alleys of their subconscious where there is no good and evil, only immediate reaction to danger clear and present.
Interestingly, even though the handheld camera records everything, it’s not exactly fly-on-the-wall documentation. The filmmaker has pretty strong opinions on many developments. Motwane, in no uncertain terms, pushes his characters to make bold comments about Bollywood, insiders versus outsiders, and lack of resources. Needless to say, such tactics add depth to AK Vs AK.
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Kapoor has stood out. It’s funny even writing this because he’s playing himself, but we don’t know how much of this is not tied to the script! Kashyap has once again demonstrated his love for the unique material and has discovered everything, sometimes literally. While Harshvardhan Kapoor shines in a cameo appearance, Yogita Bihani also fits the bill.
Another beautiful film from Motwane’s repertoire. Go where mainstream Bollywood movies hesitate to go.
Rating: 4/5
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