AK vs AK has an ingenious concept at the heart of its narrative: a meta-story about the quintessential clash between a star and a director driven up to eleven. If you are into Bollywood’s dynasties and lineages, you might be thrilled with the prospect of a brash “outsider” like Anurag Kashyap going up against an industry mainstay like Anil Kapoor. Although Kashyap hasn’t been a nobody in a long time, he is still an outcast when compared to Bollywood royalty like Kapoor, whose lineage stretches back to Prtihviraj Kapoor, who was the first patriarch in Bollywood.
After Anurag Kashyap throws water on Anil Kapoor’s face during a panel discussion, he becomes persona non-grata in Bollywood. This assistant (and documentary cameraman) Yogita suggests a bold plan. A few days later, on Christmas Eve (and Anil Kapoor’s birthday), Kashyap appears on the set of Kapoor’s latest film and reveals he has kidnapped his daughter, Sonam Kapoor. Kapoor has ten hours to find him, and his search will be captured on camera, touting it as the most realistic thriller in cinema.
Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane (Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, Sacred Games), AK vs AK never hesitates from taking the piss out of its characters. From portraying the main characters as enfants terribles in their own ways, to skewering Anil Kapoor’s son, Harshvardhan as a slightly manic (and idiotic) novice who thinks he has a brilliant cinematic mind. At one point, Anil Kapoor is hit by a car, and when Kashyap arrives, he asks Yogita whether she got the shot of the accident with a smirk and glint in his eyes. Yogita replies “sir, mast shot tha”.
AK vs AK is carried by Anil Kapoor’s performance, who blurs the lines between reality and fiction. There’s a running gag where he has to stop and take pictures with his fans even as he is desperately searching for his daughter. This culminates in a magical scene where Kapoor breaks into dance at a local Christmas party to the legendary song My Name is Lakkhan. At that moment, he is little different from a circus attraction, with people gawking at his performance and cheering him on.
Things take a turn in the third act, which stretches the plot considerably, causing the pacing to stall at times.
By the time the movie ends, we are introduced to a new twist that re-contextualizes the events of the whole film. Retroactively, the story becomes predictable. There had to be a better way to do this twist.
Still, AK vs AK is a mostly entertaining film that feels like a breath of fresh air, in the line of Ludo, that also arrived on Netflix a few months ago. Netflix has done well to support interesting Bollywood projects that stand out from the crowd, though there have been some misfires as well, such as Mismatched. AK vs AK is a daring experiment, but it doesn’t have enough going for it to merit more than a one-time watch. Of course, you will have a lot of fun during that one-time watch, especially if you appreciate little touches like Kashyap being ignored by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who has long collaborated with the director on multiple projects.