Fighter (2024) Review

We'll start with addressing the elephant in the room - is Fighter Bollywood's attempt to cash in on the success of Top Gun: Maverick. The answer is yes, and no. And to those who just wanted to know that, please let us elaborate before the inevitable curses fly out of your mouth.

Fighter is the brainchild of director Siddharth Anand, who also co-wrote the story with screenplay writer Ramon Chibb. Anand, it seems, can do no wrong - and is making a case for himself to be Bollywood's go-to guy for big budget action thrillers - with back to back successes in War and Pathaan.

Fighter is the story of the Air Dragons, a team of ace pilots that are stationed in Jammu and Kashmir to intercept terrorist activity. The movie intertwines fictional events with the real life incidents of Pulwama and Balakot to create a tale that is grounded in reality but also allows for the "filmy" theatrics you would expect from a mainstream Bollywood masala movie.

Ideas are not exactly copyrightable (though people do keep trying) - anyone can take the basic premise of a tale and play around with it till they achieve their purpose. Plagiarism would entail directly copying something and saying you made it. Copyright infringement would be using characters or concepts from another movie. While you can't write about how Captain America used a shield to help defeat Thanos, you sure could write about how Colonel India used a field to help defeat Anos. Not that you should write it, or that anyone would publish it, let alone make a movie about it. But technically, you could.

The point here is: a) Fighter is unique enough to stand on its own, especially with its frequent nods to real life incidents and the mass-y movie vibe it comfortably wears. But also, b) the character of Shamsher Pathania (Hrithik Roshan) is eerily similar to Top Gun's Pete "Maverick" Mitchell - top pilot with unruly bravado, a patent unwillingness to work within a team, tense interactions with superior officers, tasked with being a flight officer after his overconfidence leads to a catastrophe, and inevitably recalled into action for a dangerous mission when only the best will do.

Fighter is a very well-crafted entertainer, ticking all the boxes that the movie-going audience expects from movies of its ilk - drama, romance, patriotism, tragedy, revenge and, last but not the least, plenty of action. The dramatic parts genuinely surprised me - we are given a mature relationship where the woman, despite being the one to initiate the flirting, does not chase the guy with a typical "I can fix him" attitude we so often see. He is given his space to sort out his issues, and the reconciliation is completely based on mutual admiration and not toxic interdependence.

Then, a funeral sequence is one of the most detailed ones you would have seen in a Bollywood movie in quite some time. It almost manages to turn around the "token Muslim guy in a military movie" trope on its head with how evocative it is. The entire first half is dedicated to the camaraderie between the Air Dragons, and it made yours truly emotional by the end when it was least expected - yes, Fighter does the dramatic part very well, indeed.

The only thing you may not enjoy would be the villain. Azhar Akhtar (debutant Rishabh Sawhney) seems to have all the menace, but none of the substance you would expect from a memorable antagonist. He is the pantomime villain, completely and utterly evil with not a redeeming quality in sight. Ah, well - at least we are excused from having to sit through a long-winded origin story for another anti-hero character - we just take it at face value and watch the pantomime villain fall.

But (harking back to the "inspiration" part we yapped on about) most of the aerial combat scenes seem to be inspired by Top Gun. Don't get us wrong - they're still pretty entertaining, and well-executed - just ...familiar. If an action movie is all you want, and you've seen Top Gun: Maverick or were not impressed by it, this might not be the movie for you.

But for everyone else, this is solid weekend entertainment. A fantastic casting achievement, this movie is a case of the sum being greater than the parts, in terms of the performances of the cast. Hrithik plays the stoic warrior types (but with a heart of gold that you will only find out later) with consummate ease, and Deepika adds her star power to the efforts to shine light on some of the issues that face female aviators in the forces. Anil Kapoor really puts the "commanding" in Commanding Officer (CO), and the cast all work together well - even Karan Singh Grover does not ham it up like we usually see him do.

With a catchy theme song based on Vande Mataram that resonates through all but one of the movie's six songs (there are seven in total but one is only for promotion and end credits), Fighter's music complements its fantastic visuals very well. A special mention to editor Aarif Sheikh, who manages to make even a 166-minute movie not feel like a slog.

Watch this one on the big screen - not because it is unmissable, but because we have a sneaking suspicion that you won't be swept into the emotion this movie creates on your TV or home theatre. And as much as personal biases shouldn't creep into a review, Fighter is more enjoyable than War or Pathaan, or any of the Tiger movies from the same "Spy Universe", in my humble opinion.