Attack (2020 Film)

''Attack: Part 1'' is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language science fiction action film directed by Lakshya Raj Anand, who co-wrote the film with Sumit Batheja and Vishal Kapoor, based on a story by John Abraham, who stars in the film alongside Jacqueline Fernandez and Rakul Preet Singh, with Prakash Raj and Ratna Pathak Shah in supporting roles.

''Attack'' was released on 1 April 2022 in cinemas. The film received mixed reviews from critics who praised the action sequences while criticizing the screenplay, eventually bombing at the box office.

Plot

25 November 2010: Arjun Shergill (John Abraham) is an Indian Army officer, who embarks on a mission to capture Rehman Gul, a dreaded terrorist, who attacked the Indian army convoy two days ago. A tense shootout between the soldiers and terrorists ensues where Arjun manages to arrest Rehman, while also saving a suicide bomber, who is actually Rehman's son Hamid Gul.

12 years later: While leaving for his hometown at the Mumbai Airport, Arjun meets an air hostess Ayesha (Jacqueline Fernandez) and the two fall in love with each other. However, their happiness is short lived, when the airport is attacked by Hamid's men and several other including Ayesha is killed. Arjun gets injured in the fight, but recovers two weeks later and is bound in the wheel chair with only movement in his neck. Vadraj Kumar Subramaniam/V. K. Subramaniam (Prakash Raj), who is the Chief of Indian Intelligence and Arjun's superior officer, proposes the idea of introducing a supersoldier program to the PM, which is operated through AI to save lives in times of war from any collateral damage. The supersoldiers are programmed by DRDO scientist Sabah Qureshi (Rakul Preet Singh), who has been modifing the program for 7 years and is on the verge of a major breakthrough.

The PM agrees to the proposal, but Sabah explains that the program is developed on paralysed persons. Subramaniam selects Arjun for the program. Arjun reluctantly agrees to the program, as he wants to avenge Ayesha's death. While going through the surgical process, Arjun's chances of survival are shown to be minimal, but manages to survive the on-boarding process. Arjun operates himself, under the command of the Intelligence Robotic Assistant or I.R.A, but the I.R.A gets restricted due to Arjun's trauma. Meanwhile, the government receives information that Hamid is procuring chemical weapons in Eastern Europe. The next day, Sabah arrives at the Parliament to submit Arjun's progress to the Defence Minister, as advised by Subramaniam. While having conversation with I.R.A, Arjun learns that Hamid is planning to attack the Parliament and informs Subramaniam, who is at the Sansad Marg.

However, Hamid and his fellow terrorists disguised as RAF personnel, thwart all security and hijack the Parliament, capturing the Parliament Ministry and other Union ministers, including the PM and Sabah. Arjun leaves for the Parliament, along with NSG commandos, but Hamid communicates with the government, who demands that the NSG should retreat from the Parliament, in exchange for the release of 50 hostages. Subramabiam insist to the Home Minister Digvijay Singh (who is appointed as the Caretaker Prime Minister) (Rajit Kapur) and others to perform a ''partial extraction'' and sends Arjun to provide information regarding the incidents inside the Parliament. Arjun sneaks into the Parliament with I.R.A's help and kills 4-5 guards where he barges into the control room and provides live feed to Subramaniam.

Hamid demands the release of Rehman. Sabah gets caught by the terrorist Hussain, while seeking help from Arjun, but Arjun rescues her by killing Hussain and other terrorists where the two escape, thus making Hamid believe that someone else has arrived and orders to find him. Arjun reveals himself to Hamid via a walkie talkie where Hamid forces Digvijay, Subramaniam and others to force Arjun to surrender. Subramaniam tells Arjun to surrender, which he decides to do, so that he can kill Hamid and save the hostages. Arjun surrenders and is taken to Hamid where one of Hamid's men knocks Arjun's neck, which leads to malfunction in I.R.A. Hamid demands an safe passage to flee in an airline, which leaves to Ecuador and releases the hostages, but activates a sarin gas. Arjun tells Sabah to retreat with the hostages and chases after Hamid where he reaches the airport and manages to crash the flight. Arjun kills Hamid and deactivates the bomb. Sabah rescues the hostages and Rehman is killed by the NSG Commandos by throwing him out of the flight in mid-air. Arjun is appreciated by Subramaniam and the ministers, and leaves the parliament on an ambulance. Later, Arjun is appointed for another mission, thus hinting at the sequel ''Attack: Part 2''.

Cast

* John Abraham as Major Arjun Shergill, a cyborg & India’s first supersoldier
* Rakul Preet Singh as Dr. Sabaha Qureshi, DRDO scientist
* Jacqueline Fernandez as Ayesha Roy, an air hostess and Arjun's lover
* Prakash Raj as Vadraj Kumar "V.K" Subramaniam, Defence Secretary and Arjun's superior officer
* Ratna Pathak Shah as Shanti Shergill, Arjun's mother
* Serena Walia as I.R.A (voice), Arjun's personal AI assistant
* Elham Ehsas as Hamid Gul, Rehman's son and the main antagonist
* Rajit Kapur as Home Minister Digvijay Singh
* Kiran Kumar as Indian Army Chief K.V. Singh
* Habib Al Aidroos as Rehman Gul, Hamid's father
* Tamara D'Souza as Juhi, Ayesha's friend
* Mir Mehroos as Young Hamid Gul
* Jaimini Pathak as Negotiator Sukrut
* Babrak Akbari as Mustafa
* Nimish Desai as Prime Minister
* Ashish Nijhawan as Hussain
* Shahnawaz Bhatt as Saqlain
* Vikas Tomar as Home Minister’s Assistant
* Ranjit Punia as CRPF Officer
* Ranjeet Singh as RAF Officer
* Karan Mehat as Shahid

Production

Principal photography began in January 2020. Production was put on hold in March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. The shooting resumed in February 2021.

Release

The film was originally scheduled for theatrical opening worldwide on 14 August 2020. However, it was delayed due to the shooting suspension. It was scheduled for release on 28 January 2022, however, it was postponed due to the surge in Omicron variant cases. It was theatrically released on 1 April 2022. The film streamed on ZEE5 on 27 May.

Reception

Box office

''Attack'' earned 3.51 crore at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected 3.75 crore. On the third day the film had a worldwide gross of 4.25 crore, taking total domestic weekend collection to 11.51 crore.

, the film grossed crore in India and crore overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of crore.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics who praised the action sequences while criticising the screenplay. Rachana Dubey of ''The Times of India'' gave the film a rating of 3.5/5 and wrote "Attack: Part One, is an engaging watch, from start to finish". Grace Cyril of ''India Today'' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "Attack stands well with its VFX and new concepts, all coated in a layer of slick modern sci-fi". Avinash Lohana of ''Pinkvilla'' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "Keep an open mind, don’t compare, and give the film a chance. You might like it". Bharathi Pradhan of ''Lehren'' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "John may take a bow because he is one of the producers of the film and has been credited with the story idea too". Taran Adarsh of ''Bollywood Hungama'' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "ATTACK - PART 1 works due to the novel concept, action, VFX and John Abraham’s first-rate performance". Rohit Bhatnagar of ''The Free Press Journal'' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "'Attack - Part 1' might be a beginning of a new era in the Hindi film industry only if you ignore the long list of loopholes and cliché sequences".

Saibal Chatterjee of ''NDTV'' gave the film a rating of 2.5/5 and wrote "To the credit of director Lakshya Raj Anand, the fast-paced hostage drama stops short of being a dreadful assault on the senses". Shubhra Gupta of ''Indian Express'' gave the film a rating of 2.5/5 and wrote "We know exactly how things will pan out, no strain on the brain. Everything is straight-forward, no complicated characters, no morally ambiguous situations". Shubham Kulkarni of ''Koimoi'' gave the film a rating of 2/5 and wrote "Lakshya Raj Anand only focuses on the battle sequences and everything that happens between them looks lazy". Tatsam Mukherjee of ''Firstpost'' gave the film a rating of 1/5 and wrote "Whatever might be the measures taken by an earlier John Abraham film, there seems to be a renewed bloodlust in Attack, that’s actively trying to court the ‘masses’ of '' Uri: The Surgical Strike'' and ''The Kashmir Files''".

Soundtrack

The film's music is composed by Shashwat Sachdev while lyrics written by Kumaar and Bjorn Surrao.

References

External links

*

Attack
at Bollywood Hungama

Attack
at ZEE5
{{Portal bar, India, Film, Bollywood

2022 films
Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2022 science fiction action films
Indian science fiction action films
2020s Hindi-language films
Films scored by Shashwat Sachdev
Cyberpunk films