| Name of Movie | Aiyaary |
| Critics Rating | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Director | Neeraj Pandey |
| Star cast | Sidharth Malhotra, Manoj Bajpayee, Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher |
| Genre | Crime Thriller |
| Duration | 2 hours 40 Minutes |
| Date Released | 16 February 2018 |
Plot - Set in the backdrop of Indian Army, Aiyaary speaks the story of an army officer who is forced to chase down his protégé who has gone rogue and turned a threat to the nation’s government and the army. The Neeraj Pandey’s directorial follows some traits from his 2015-hit Baby.
The movie opens up with the covert operations led by Colonel Abhay Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) who is an honest and dutiful officer at heart. Colonel Abhay is accompanied by a group of officers in his mission. Things go wrong when Jai Kakshi (Sidharth Malhotra) – the brightest lad in his team, goes rogue and Abhay has to chase him down.
Review - Manoj Bajpayee excels in his role as Colonel Abhay Singh and he as a duty-bound man in all manners remains the backbone of the film. As always, Neeraj Pandey shows why his films are known for strong character actors. Abhay’s intentions are clear while chasing Jai.
Direction - Sidharth Malhotra plays his role of Jai Bakshi pretty well. Yet, he seems to go too unspecific and considers everyone as corrupted. In his attempts to clean the corruption, he even fights against dutiful Colonel Abhay and the loyal army chief General Pratap Malik (Vikram Gokhale) who seems to be a nice guy. There is no answer to the question why he chooses to do so.
Rakul Preet Singh plays the love interest of Jai. She is gorgeously charming yet thankfully not a lot of time spent on showing their romance. Pooja Chopra hints a lot of potential at the beginning but fades away other than being a loyalist to Colonel Abhay.
The director has failed to fully utilize Anupam Kher as Tariq Ali. Naseeruddin Shah as Baburao does pretty well and turns important, though little late, at a crucial point in the film.
Why to Watch- A few ‘unwanted’ or ‘non-related’ scenes make the movie lagging. These scenes don’t add spice to the film and should have been removed. The screenplay loses pace at times. The film could have been a better watch if it had avoided those dramatized scenes.
For those expecting the usual cleverness of Neeraj Pandey may be left to feel ‘need more of it.’ But for sure, the movie ‘Aiyaary’ is worth a watch for its performances. Still, it would have been a better watch if it had some more edits and proper cuts.
