Hrithik Roshan takes to the skies in the first chapter of a new all-action franchise from Siddharth Anand.

Emotions and politics fly fast and hard in Siddharth Anand’s mega-budget Hindi-language “Fighter”, a new attempt at making the next big cinematic universe after his stints in Yash Raj Films’ Spy Universe, “War” and “Pathaan”. While “Pathaan” heralded the return of Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan, “War” saw him refine his partnership with the similarly beloved Hrithik Roshan, giving him another super-hunk super-spy role after “Bang Bang!”, a remake of the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action rom-com “Knight & Day”. The shadow of Tom Cruise looms over Anand’s work with increasing prominence nowadays; “Pathaan” recruited “Top Gun: Maverick”‘s stunt coordinator Casey O’Neill as its second unit and action director, and now, Anand’s very own production company Marflix Pictures utilises Roshan’s lucrative leading man status into India’s very own “Top Gun” (complete with a villain modelled off Cruise’s hair and outfit in “Mission: Impossible II”). Spreading their wings from one extended universe into another is an exciting prospect for masala cinema, and with the billion dollar success of “Maverick” on the world stage, Roshan playing a pilot while Anand pilots behind the camera should send a heat-seeking missile towards the competition.

Their approach is as broad as they come. A crack team of IAF helicopter and jet pilots is assembled at Srinagar Airfield, bordering Kashmir, following a significant threat from Pakistani mujahideen working covertly under the funding of the Pakistani government. The squad is made up of some fun caricatures, including but not limited to the dorky rookie ‘Sukhi’ (Banveen Singh), wife-guy ‘Taj’ (Karan Singh Grover), no-nonsense girl-amongst-boys ‘Minni’ (Deepika Padukone), and (of course) their tortured but brilliant hotshot leader ‘Patty’ (Hrithik Roshan). They bicker, they train, they drink and party together, and gradually become a cohesive unit despite the inevitable ego growth that comes from knowing how to fly death machines worth the economy of a small country. But when a skirmish between Pakistan and India leaves some of our heroes behind enemy lines, faiths are shaken and tempers are flared as what was a national conflict becomes a deeply personal one.

Any alarm bells ringing about the shameless jingoism of making Pakistan an actively villainous presence in this narrative are absolutely real and legitimate, with Anand’s view on a current and long-running international conflict as deeply concerning, angry and reductive. The eventual fistfight between an aggrieved Patty and sadistic uber-bad guy Akhtar (first-time Rishabh Sawhney, excellent in a cartoonishly evil role) sees Hrithik seething his way through a monologue punctuated with suplexes and sucker punches about Kashmir’s ‘rightful’ Indian ownership, and how (if they’re not careful) Pakistan itself will become an Indian occupation. Given the touchiness of conflicts surrounding land ownership in this current moment, it’s difficult not to be left with a sour taste in the mouth with such vitriolic right-wing views being spouted by crowd-pleasing entertainment of this scale.

Ιt’s a film that’s not above its villains suicide-bombing a gang of flag-waving innocents as its initial conflict, and it somehow encourages both sides to play dirtier until the entire picture is practically vibrating with Islamophobia. Its highest emotional peaks come in the form of its Indian heroes screaming “Jai hind!” as they see their flag burning, which is inexplicably more painful than having their fingers snipped off. Bollywood deals in fantastic melodrama, we all know that, but there is a line that “Fighter” repeatedly crosses, becoming such a one-sided screech at its chosen enemies that it transforms into something unpleasant and just plain nasty.

It’s also no secret that action movies of this high a calibre can frequently be this politically reprehensible, yet also retain their towering status as exciting spectacles. Anand’s mission to give his country its first aviation action picture sees him take major inspiration from both “Top Gun” films, compounding their narrative beats into a single near-three hour epic, and also trying to apply some of the action tricks he learned from Casey O’Neill on “Pathaan”. His 250 crore budget has certainly given him the numbers to work with, and most of that goes towards some slick CG that thunderously establishes the mile-high world of the IAF. The training montages are engaging and the geography is initially tight, but the action does lose its way as each sequence becomes more repetitive than the last. In terms of proper stunt work with pilots and actors alike experiencing real G-force, “Top Gun” still has the upper hand, with too much of “Fighter”‘s aerial combat being obviously CGI, leaving the element of genuine, weighty danger to one side for most of the picture. 

Instead, “Fighter”‘s pleasures lie in its commitment to the yearning melodrama between its good-looking cast. Our introduction to Patty sees him fly a jet upside down whilst landing as a show-off tactic, and a simple cocked eyebrow from Minni is enough to get the ball rolling for some ripe (if ultimately chaste) romantic tension between Roshan and Padukone. Much of the interpersonal drama takes place on runways at golden hour, Roshan’s razor-sharp jawline being practically made to have the setting sun bounce off it as his teary eyes do the heavy lifting. The film’s love language is power ballads and motorbikes, sunset regret and near-miss kisses, and is directed with so much feeling and brio that it’s almost enough to forget the hatred the film is otherwise capable of.

There are also some excellent dance numbers where Roshan is completely at home, especially in a disco-influenced party sequence where Anil Kapoor’s hard-ass commander Rocky lets his hair down (metaphorically, of course: there is no force on earth that can fell his impressive quiff) with a glass of whisky and a tight-fitting turtleneck. Had “Fighter” simply been about the vibes shared by pilot pals and the COs who love throwing the book at them, it would be a far more successful film than the lumbering, surprisingly barbaric beast it turns into. 

While it’s a more grounded chance for Anand to flex his action muscles than his Yash Raj spy films, it’s a significant step backwards for him as a maker of lighthearted entertainment. His spy adventures were hardly unimpeachable as nationalistic manifestos, but they had a self-awareness that stopped them short of being actively offensive. His own franchise launch at Marflix crosses that rubicon and ends up as needlessly full of itself and drunk on the power of its nation, muddying the waters and speaking up unduly when the real world is experiencing its own agony at the same moment. Where the “Fighter” saga goes from here is unknowable, yet one can only hope these handsome people don’t get any more ugly than this.