When Tom ‘Maverick’ Cruise first did his fly-by in his jet in 1986’s Top Gun, he knocked us off our feet and took our collective breath away. No one came close to matching that aerial thrill till 2022, when Cruise strapped into the cockpit once more for Top Gun: Maverick. Hrithik Roshan’s Shamsher ‘Patty’ Pathania might not have taken our breath away when he pulled a similar stunt on his entry in Siddharth Anand’s Fighter, but he certainly made us sit up and go wide-eyed.
The Fighter trailer would have clued most people into what to expect from the film, and they would be right. Built around the Pulwama and Balakot attacks, it follows the usual template of Pakistani terrorists vowing to bring the Indian defence forces to their knees, spouting anti-Indian vitriol, and Indians hitting back and defeating the enemy while spouting dialogues on what it means to be Indian. The plot is pretty predictable when it comes to patriotic actioners.
What elevates Fighter beyond the predictable is the swag of its two leading actors. Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone make the runway look like the ramp every time they walk slo-mo to and from their planes, helmet at hip. While individually they are commanding, together they are great at playing off each other, whether on ground or in air. Only their budding romance seems a bit forced. Deepika’s awestruck look at Hrithik’s OTT entry rankles even more, given that she herself got a stellar aerial intro sequence.
Hrithik’s Patty is an ace fighter pilot with a maverick streak who is grappling with personal tragedy hidden behind a cocky facade. Deepika’s Minal ‘Minni’ Rathore is breaking the glass ceiling as a female squadron leader flying choppers. Both of them embody a certain seriousness that their posts demand amid all the camaraderie with the others in their newly-formed unit Air Dragons. And both are superb in the aerial combat sequences.
The two leads are ably buoyed by a stellar supporting cast — Karan Singh Grover as Sartaj ‘Taj’ Gill and Akshay Oberoi as Basheer ‘Bash’ Khan, both Air Dragons team members led by Anil Kapoor’s Rakesh ‘Rocky’ Jai Singh, the Group Captain. Kapoor delivers once again, every inch the commanding officer. Some of the most emotionally charged scenes are between Patty and Rocky, who are connected by a past tragedy.
Fighter’s star attraction are its aerial sequences; everything else is really just a distraction. Whether it is the fun training scenes with pilots showing off their skills or tense aerial battles with the enemy, when the birds are in air everything else pales in comparison. It is not a copy of the aerial moves in Top Gun, so there is enough originality to keep you on the edge of your seat. The pulsating music and the echoing melody of Vande Mataram accompanying the visuals just enhance the experience.
No wonder there is a distinct drop in pace when the birds are on the ground, especially when that time is filled with jingoism and a little bit of forced patriarchy bashing.
The film’s lowest point is its villain — terrorist Azhar Akhtar, played by Rishabh Sawhney, who, with his ironed hair and puckered lips, seems to run Pakistan’s military operations instead of just a terrorist outfit. He feels more like a caricature of the Terminator than a flesh-and-blood bad guy. So does the climactic on-ground (in air, it is once again full-thrust thrill) hero-on-villain one-twos.
But the action and the star power far outweigh these drawbacks, and Fighter is also a smartly shot and tightly edited film. If the jingoism is cut out, Fighter: Patty is a film we wouldn’t mind waiting to see sometime in the future.
