Neeraj Pandey's 'Aiyaary' is a confused film filled with a number of inter wining with each other. It is an espionage thriller set against the backdrop of Indian Armed Forces although it totally lacks his natural flair.
The film-maker starts the movie in his typical style full of twisted elements. However lack of time-frame and inconsistent narratives hampers the progress very early. The length of the movie also doesn't help the cause. The first half builds promisingly and by the end of it most of the movie unravels.
It starts off with Major Jai Bakshi(Siddharth Malhotra), an covert intelligence team-member gone rogue. He learns about the corruption among the higher authorities of the organisation while performing a surveillance role. At the same time he also holds a number of dark secrets that could set a chain of unwanted events.When Colonel Abhay Singh(Manoj Bajpayee), a highly trained military officer learns of his disappearance, he decides to take the matter in his own hands. Helping Jai is all this hara-kiri is his freelancing hacking expert girlfriend Sonia(Rakul Preet Singh).
The second half is all about the cat-and-mouse chase among the two protagonists trying to outsmart each other at every move. The climax has nothing extraordinary but the movie falls flat way before its end. The pace of the movie is up-and-down throughout. There are too many extra characters with unexplained motives. The director tries to trust the audience during many aspects of the movie which is a valiant attempt but the loopholes in the script doesn't allow him to do that.
Pandey again employs his chosen actors with some new faces. Manoj Bajpayee is in his usual brilliant form. Siddharth Mehrotra again fails to impress keeping more or less the same impression throughout the film. There are a few cameos from Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Adil Hussain, Kumud Mishra but they doesn't inspire much confidence.
'Aiyaary' is an ambitious effort but consists of many rookie mistakes and hence is not able to punch above its weight. Although lesser run time and fewer characters could have improved the story.
