‘Akira’ movie review: Strictly for Sonakshi Sinha and Anurag Kashyap fans

Directed by: AR Murugadoss
Produced by: AR Murugadoss, Fox Star Studios
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Anurag Kashyap, Konkona Sen Sharma
Duration: 2 hours 19 minute
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 2/5

Finally, Sonakshi Sinha’s first woman-centric flick ‘Akira’ has hit the screens. Directed by AR Murugadoss, the movie is a remake of Tamil film ‘Mouna Guru’. The central character in the Tamil film was a male, but Murugadss has made ‘Akira’ with Sonakshi as the protagonist.

The movie starts off with young Akira who is a daughter of a professor and stays in Jodhpur. In front of her, a girl she knows falls victim to an acid attack. She decides to stand for the right and identifies the culprit, but later she is being attacked and she gets hurt. Her father decides that her daughter should learn self-defence instead of dancing (a fantastic point, which is showed wonderfully in the film). The younger Akira gets into a fight with the local goons and due to this she lands up in a remand home. After 14 years, Akira’s brother decides to take her and her mother to Mumbai. Akira starts studying in college, but she still continues to stand for a right thing. On the other hand, there is an ACP (Anurag Kashyap) who is very corrupt. A sting operation is done on him by his own girlfriend Maya (Rai Lakhsmi) and unfortunately the camcorder on which the sting operation is done, lands into Akira’s room. ACP’s team kidnaps Akira and plans to kill her, but she fights (some action out here) and saves herself. Now ACP’s team is behind Akira to kill her as now she knows their secret. Will they be able to kill Akira? This forms the rest of the story.

The movie is written by Santha Kumar and he has come up with an interesting concept. However, this interesting concept gets stretchy, especially in the second half. The screenplay of the film in the first half is engaging and believe us, there are some ‘edge of the seat’ moments which impress us a lot. But then we expected some really interesting and hard-hitting sequences in the second half, however we were disappointed. The writer could have made this film a massy entertainer with an interesting concept, but unfortunately the film goes haywire to make it a message-oriented one. At a point you will feel that the movie is over, but no it’s not! It drags a lot towards the end. There are a few things that will make you clueless why they are happening. For example, Akira is brave girl and is an expert in hitting the goons, but then there are sequences where she once again becomes the damsel in distress. The mark on Sonakshi’s face throughout the film is somewhat irritating. Sometimes the mark was dark and sometimes it was a bit faded, hinting at poor make-up.

AR Murugadoss has proved with films like ‘Ghajini’ and ‘Holiday’ that he is a fantastic director. But it looks like for ‘Akira’ the director was confused whether he has to make a massy film or a film with hard-hitting message (well the message didn’t come out at all). He has tried to put both the things in one film (message as well as masala). Well, there are a few directors who have tried doing that in the past, but Murugadoss unfortunately fails here in doing that.

When we talk about actors, it’s Anurag Kashyap who steals the show. He is excellent as the antagonist. We feel he should do more acting, than making films. It is good to see a film where Sonakshi Sinha is the main protagonist. She has done action fantastically and has handled the emotional and dramatic sequences wonderfully. The ‘actress’ Sonakshi is here. Konkona Sen Sharma is excellent as the pregnant lady police officer. Her style of walking to her style of talking (sarcastic tone), she has just nailed it. Amit Sadh has nothing to do in the film.

There’s not much scope for the music and that it doesn’t impress. However, the background score is good.

Overall, ‘Akira’ has an interesting concept which goes haywire in narration. If you are a Sonakshi Sinha and Anurag Kashyap fan, then it’s a must watch for you.

Check out the trailer: