AK vs AK Review: The Battle You Need To Watch

How meta can you really get? For AK vs AK, there is perhaps no limit.

When the trailer for AK vs AK first dropped, it left the audience divided. Many were skeptical about the format, which gave reality TV-esque vibes from the onset. Anil Kapoor’s daughter gets kidnapped by Anurag Kashyap? You could be forgiven for being reminded of the overdramatic ‘scandals’ that Indian reality shows often use for increasing their TRPs. However, the film is really something else.

AK vs AK begins with Anurag Kashyap and Anil Kapoor holding an interview together, which soon escalates into personal (and physical) attacks. The incident leaves Anurag Kashyap seething with anger as he gets even more isolated by the industry. Kashyap decides to retaliate by creating a dangerous game: Kidnapping Anil Kapoor’s daughter Sonam and giving the actor just the night to find her.

What follows is a thrilling chase that spans across Mumbai and its many aspects. In the cinematographical format of a mockumentary, a camera follows the two AKs as the hunt for Sonam Kapoor begins. But what makes AK vs AK truly a delight is how meta it becomes. There are real people, people whom we have seen over the years, in seemingly real situations. But they are not their “real” selves, but more like the same people from an alternate universe. How did Motwane achieve this? By weaving characters that resemble the originals in the core ways, but have some distinct differences. So Anil Kapoor is still the veteran superstar we know, but with a mean streak. Anurag Kashyap is still the genius filmmaker we know, but with amplified madness.

The self-awareness continues when the characters interact with the common public. You cannot expect Anil Kapoor to walk on the streets and not get asked for selfies – which is exactly what happens. After one point, you cannot differentiate between who is a crew in the film and who is just a random bystander. The film also plays on the public’s perception of movie stars: they want their stars to dance, act and take selfies, not behave like regular human beings.

The best thrillers don’t give away their game until the very end, like a magician. Motwane is that magician in this film. Just before the climax begins, we see the film deviating from what we thought it was. And by the time it ends, we see every guess we had at the beginning proven wrong. The one final twist makes this film worthy to be ranked among the best thrillers of the decade.

But while AK vs AK is a great thriller, it is also an amazing black comedy. The dry humor is too real and, if you catch it, too witty. Anurag Kashyap pulls no punches in writing dialogues that hit a tad too below the belt. So there is ample mocking of Anil Kapoor’s long-gone stardom, Kashyap’s persistent failure at the box office, Hard Vardhan’s rant against Bhavesh Joshi (which was made by Motwane himself), and Sonam being the most successful star in the Kapoor family right now. Kashyap being consistently misidentified as other ‘art’ directors like Madhur Bhandarkar, his namesake Anurag Basu and his brother Abhinav Kashyap is another of those hilarious running jokes in the film. These self-burns are one of the primary factors that make the audience get invested in this chase.

Playing yourself is not an easy job to do, but this was the job entrusted to the primary cast of this film. For Anurag Kashyap, things might have been a little easier; he has the experience of playing himself in many projects. But it is Anil Kapoor who truly surprises. Much like Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor has re-discovered himself with age. While the film takes digs at ‘method acting’, Anil Kapoor indeed puts out a performance as good as any method actor could.

Alokananda Dasgupta’s music is like a garnish to a great dish, only accentuating the thrill of the film at all the right moments. The cinematography sometimes abrupts the suspension of belief with the shaky-cam effect. The occasional speeding-up of scenes also works against the film.

But these minor flaws aside, the film is truly a delight to watch. The novelty of the concept is what serves as this film’s USP. There was only one way of doing AK vs AK right – thankfully, Motwane achieves exactly that. In other words, jhakkas!

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