War (2019 film)

''War'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language vigilante spy action thriller film directed by Siddharth Anand, who co-wrote the film's script with Aditya Chopra, Shridhar Raghavan and Abbas Tyrewala.The film was produced by Aditya Chopra for Yash Raj Films. It is the third installment in the YRF Spy Universe and stars Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, and Vaani Kapoor. In the film, Khalid Rahmani (Shroff), an Indian soldier, is assigned to eliminate his former mentor Kabir Dhaliwal (Roshan), who has inexplicably gone rogue.

Tentatively titled ''Fighters'', the film's name was revealed on the release of the teaser trailer.

''War'' opened worldwide on 2 October 2019 on Gandhi Jayanti 5-day extended weekend. Released simultaneously with its Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions, it received generally positive reviews, with praise for Roshan performance. The film was a commercial success grossing over , becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019 and one of the highest-grossing Indian film of all time.

Plot

Major Kabir Dhaliwal kills V.K. Naidu, an army veteran, in New Delhi instead of his assignment to kill Iraqi terrorist Farid Haqqani. The army, led by Defence Minister Sherna Patel and Colonel Sunil Luthra, summon Captain Khalid Rahmani and Kabir's student, to capture him.

It is revealed that Khalid's father, Major Abdul Rahmani, betrayed the army in a previous mission, leaving Kabir with two gunshot wounds; Kabir then killed Abdul. Reluctant to work with Khalid, Kabir eventually allows him to join his squad, consisting of Saurabh, Prateek, Muthu, and Aditi, on a successful mission in Tikrit to kill a cell of Haqqani's associates. The squad reunite to target terrorist Rizwan Illiyasi but as they capture him, he tells Kabir that he planted a mole in his team. Killing Prateek and Muthu, Saurabh reveals himself as the mole; after a rooftop chase, a shootout ensues, knocking Kabir out. He wakes at the hospital and meets a severely injured Khalid, who tells him that he killed Saurabh.

Khalid is nearly taken off the mission to capture Kabir when Jimmy Shroff, a Lieutenant colonel, is murdered by Kabir. Kabir then organizes a public meet with Khalid, informing him that his next target is Dr. Utpal Biswas. Khalid is unable to prevent Biswas from being killed by Kabir and is suspended. Khalid tracks Kabir down through a previous case; he learns Khalid is on a covert mission to find a government hard drive with secret codes, and is targeting Illiyasi's known associates. He also learns Kabir faked a relationship with Naina Verma, a dancer, to get her to spy on Firoze Contractor, one of Illiyasi's previous associates. Naina was ultimately murdered by Firoze, who Kabir deduces is actually Illiyasi following plastic surgery.

Kabir and Khalid agree to work together but Kabir's hideout is attacked; they escape and reach Kerala, to Aditi's wedding, and recover a hard drive with the secret codes. Kabir hands the drive to Khalid, who poisons Kabir with TTX on a boat. It is revealed that Khalid was ultimately shot dead by Illiyasi in Tikrit, with Saurabh undergoing plastic surgery to disguise himself as Khalid. Saurabh throws Kabir into a river and returns to Illiyasi, who is based on a heavily armed icebreaker ship.

Kabir then parachutes aboard, eliminating Illiyasi's militia. Kabir tells Saurabh he knew that he was not Khalid, having seen him shoot perfectly from his right side and drink alcohol (Khalid lacked peripheral vision in his right eye and refused to drink alcohol due to religious beliefs) and that he acquired the TTX antidote from Aditi. Saurabh shoots Illiyasi and escapes the ship to a derelict church, where Kabir kills him by collapsing the church's dome.

Khalid is posthumously honoured for his bravery and sacrifice; his mother, Nafeesa, receives an award from the Prime Minister on his behalf. Kabir, who is still officially designated a traitor by the army, now takes care of Ruhi, Naina's daughter. After meeting Luthra, Kabir agrees to a covert mission to kill Haqqani.

Cast

* Hrithik Roshan as Major Kabir Dhaliwal, former soldier turned RAW agent
* Tiger Shroff as Captain Khalid Rahmani / Captain Saurabh, (after plastic surgery) (dual role)
* Vaani Kapoor as Naina Varma, a dancer
* Mashhor Amrohi in a dual role as Firoze Contractor/Rizwan Illiyasi (after plastic surgery)
* Ashutosh Rana as Colonel Sunil Luthra, RAW Joint Secretary and Kabir's boss
* Anupriya Goenka as Aditi Nahta (formerly Poorna in Tiger Zinda Hai), Kabir's team member who was a former nurse turned RAW agent
* Dipannita Sharma as Dr. Mallika Singhal, Illiyasi and Saurabh's Plastic Surgeon
* Soni Razdan as Nafeesa Rahmani, Khalid's mother
* Arif Zakaria as Dr. Utpal Biswas
* Mohit Chauhan as RAW Agent V.K. Naidu
* Swaroopa Ghosh as Sherna Patel, Defence Minister of India
* Yash Raaj Singh as Captain Saurabh, Former RAW agent turned Illiyasi's mole in Kabir's team
* Sanjeev Vatsa as Rizwan Illyasi, the most wanted man appointed by RAW
* Dishita Sehgal as Ruhi Verma, Naina's daughter
* Imran Ahamed as RAW Agent Saini
* Jessey Lever as Captain Muthu, RAW Agent who was shot by Saurabh
* Amit Gaur as Lieutenant colonel Jimmy Shroff (Para SF)
* Ravi Awana as Basheer Hassib, Illiyasi's ally
* Anil Khopkar as Prime Minister

Production

Development

On Yash Chopra's birth anniversary, Yash Raj Films announced a new action film starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. Vaani Kapoor was finalised to play the female lead. Two international action choreographers from Hollywood and Korea were employed to design action sequences.

The climax scene of the film was shot actually on the Arctic Circle, becoming the first-ever Indian film to do so. Siddharth Anand, the director of the film stated, "We want to push the benchmark of action movies that are made in our country. So, we are bringing two of the biggest action choreographers together to design some of the most outlandish and visually-spectacular sequences. On one hand, we have Andy R Armstrong from Hollywood and on the other, we have Mr SeaYoung Oh, who is an outstanding martial arts action choreographer from South Korea."

Filming

Principal photography began in the second week of September 2018. The film also has a dance off between the two stars in the song "Jai Jai Shivshankar". The film schedule was wrapped up in the beginning of March 2019. The film has been shot in multiple exotic locations at Delhi, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Georgia. The bike chase sequence between the two stars was filmed in Portugal. The car chase sequence which is the climax of the film was shot at the Arctic Circle.

Music

The music of the film is composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Kumaar. All themes are composed by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara.

Release

The film was released on 2 October 2019, coinciding with the Gandhi Jayanti.

Reception

Box office

''War'' opened with collection of 53.35 crore on its first day. It is the highest opening day collection for Hindi film. On the second day it collected 24.35 crore, On the third day it collected 22.45 crore, taking its total collection to 100.15 crore. ''War'' has already created six new records as the film reaches to 100 crore mark at the box-office. The film entered the 100 Crore Club in three days of its release. The extended opening weekend collection of the film at 166.25 crore is the highest opening weekend collection for any 2019 Bollywood film. The film by crossing 200 crore in its opening week has become the fastest Bollywood film of 2019 to achieve the feat.

As of now, with gross of 378.46 crore from India and 97.04 crore from overseas, the film has grossed 475.50 crore worldwide, and has become the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019.

Critical response

''War'' received generally positive reviews from critics; on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 72% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10.

Among positive reviews, Anupama Chopra said "War is a popcorn entertainer and you can't ask too many questions but if you're willing to suspend disbelief, the twists and turns exert a solid grip." A writer for Bollywood Hungama gave the film four stars out of five, and said "''War'' is an action entertainer which has style as well as enough twists and turns to keep the viewers engrossed. At the box office, the extended weekend, dazzling action, stunning international locales and stylish execution will ensure mammoth footfalls for the film". Taran Adarsh gave it four stars out of five and called the film " capist cinema at its best". Komal Nahta of ''Film Information'' opined, "The film could prove to be the starting of a new franchise for the Yash Raj Films banner". Writing for '' India TV'', Sonal gave the film three and a half stars out of five, writing, "Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff of Abbas Mustan kinda twists, turns, characters, situations, logic, gravity, physics, chemistry, and some Ekta Kapoor-esque tricks all tossed together to make a visually spectacular concoction". Rajeev Masand of News18 gave the film two and a half out of five stars and said, "Both Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff fully commit to the action, bringing swag to the big stylish sequences and a visceral energy to the one-on-one punch-ups in the movie."

Among the reviewers who granted the film mixed reviews, ''The Times of India'' rated it three stars out of five and felt the film had "lot of style, stunts and show, but lacking a solid storyline". ''India Today'' rated it two and a half stars out of five and wrote, "''War'' is a crowd-puller, but it isn't meant to further the cause of cinema". ''Daily News and Analysis'' gave three stars out of five and wrote, "''War'' seems more like a Hrithik Roshan and YRF come back than anything else". Writing for ''The Indian Express'', Shubhra Gupta granted the film two stars out of five, stating, "The chief trouble with ''War'' is that all the space is divvied up between Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff, that the poor baddies don't really get a chance". Writing for ''Firstpost'', Anna M. M. Vetticad gave two stars out of five, opining that the film "could have been a suspenseful, eyecatching, entertaining ride. But for its politics... tis a painfully condescending ode to Muslim loyalty to our vatan, an ode that is particularly cynical and offensive". Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film one and a half stars out of five and stated, "Powered by two loose-limbed and resolutely stone-faced male leads, Hrithik and Tiger, War is all style and no substance".

Accolades

Future

At a launch party for War, Anand confirmed that he was working on the script of its sequel and had plans to convert the film into a franchise, depending on the audience response to the film; War sequel is expected to have a theatrical release in October 2025. Hrithik Roshan is expected to have cameos as Kabir in both YRF Spy Universe movies '' Pathaan'' and ''Tiger 3'' as Kabir.

Notes

References

External links

*
*
*
*

{{YRF Spy Universe

2019 films
2010s Hindi-language films
2019 action thriller films
2010s chase films
Indian action thriller films
Indian chase films
Films about the Research and Analysis Wing
Yash Raj Films films
Films set in Mumbai
Films shot in Mumbai
Films shot in Italy
Films shot in Portugal
Films shot in Switzerland
Films directed by Siddharth Anand