Alpha marks Shiv Rawail’s entry into the YRF Spy Universe, and it arrives with an unusual pitch for Hindi cinema: two women, not conventional action stars, carrying an entire spy thriller on their shoulders. The film follows Sita, a young woman injected with an experimental Alpha serum and shaped into an elite assassin, only for her carefully built world to unravel once she learns the truth about her own past.
Cast
- Alia Bhatt as Sita
- Sharvari as Durga
- Bobby Deol as Colonel Fateh
- Anil Kapoor as RAW chief Kaul
- Hrithik Roshan in a special cameo appearance
Story
Sita’s transformation from trainee to weapon is overseen by Colonel Fateh, who grooms her into one of India’s most valuable covert assets. Her journey ultimately intersects with Durga and RAW head Kaul, both of whom are linked by a common past of grief that neither woman has completely come to terms with. When Sita discovers what was really done to her, loyalty gives way to rebellion, and the mission she was built for turns into a mission against the very people who built her.
Trailer
Review
There is a genuinely interesting film buried somewhere inside Alpha. The setup, a covert program engineering superpowered soldiers out of trauma and grief, has real dramatic weight, and casting two women in roles usually reserved for male action leads is a bold swing for a mainstream Hindi blockbuster. For a while, the film seems to understand what it has: a story about stolen childhoods and inherited pain, filtered through a comic-book-style origin narrative that recalls the tone of Marvel’s super soldier sagas.
That promise fades fast. Instead of digging into Sita’s inner conflict, the screenplay keeps pulling away from it, chasing family drama, patriotic posturing, and a twist that never earns its impact. A cameo from Hrithik Roshan adds noise rather than value, feeling more like a marketing hook than a meaningful story beat. What could have been a character study wrapped in genre trappings ends up as a disjointed patchwork of scenes that rarely build on each other.
The dialogue does the film no favors. Much of it exists purely to explain things the visuals should already be communicating, from a character’s intelligence to a superior’s importance, leaving little room for subtext or tension to develop naturally. A handful of lines do land with genuine punch, hinting at the sharper film this could have been, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
The soundtrack compounds the problem. Songs arrive at odd moments and often feel more like accompaniment for a lifestyle commercial than a spy thriller, undercutting scenes that are meant to carry emotional or physical stakes.
On the performance front, Alia Bhatt commits fully to Sita, bringing sincerity to a role that the writing rarely supports. Sharvari is likeable but underused, stuck playing a lighter, more one-note version of what her character could have been. Bobby Deol and Anil Kapoor both bring the gravitas their parts demand, though even their presence cannot compensate for a screenplay that keeps taking the easy way out.
Verdict
Alpha looks good in motion. The action is polished, and the two leads clearly bring commitment to their roles. But slick choreography cannot substitute for a story with genuine stakes, and Alpha never finds the tension, grit, or emotional follow-through its premise promised. What should have been a striking new chapter for Bollywood action ends up as a competent-looking film with very little underneath.
