War (2019 film)


War is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra under his banner Yash Raj Films. Starring Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff and Vaani Kapoor, the film follows an Indian soldier assigned to eliminate his former mentor who has gone rogue. Principal photography for the film began in the second week of September 2018 and concluded in March 2019. Initially titled Fighters, the title was changed after the release of the official teaser in July 2019. Its music was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Kumaar, and released under the banner Yash Raj Films Music.
Made on a budget of 170 crore, War was released worldwide in conventional, 4DX and MX4D cinemas on 2 October 2019, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti. Released simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, the film received mostly positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances of Roshan and Shroff as well as the action sequences, but criticism for the writing. War set the record for the highest-opening day collection made by a Bollywood film in India. With a worldwide gross of over 475 crore, the film emerged as a huge box office success, and the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019.

Plot

In New Delhi, a mysterious sniper is contacted by an aged secret agent, V.K. Naidu, to kill a target from a distance. However, the sniper instead shoots Naidu, and escapes. He is revealed to be former Research and Analysis Wing agent Kabir, considered one of the agency's best who has now gone rogue.
Shortly after, Kabir's former boss and RAW joint secretary Colonel Sunil Luthra relays Kabir's betrayal to Defence Minister Sherna Patel, who calls for the agency to summon Khalid Rahmani, a RAW agent who was previously mentored by Kabir and is in complete awe of the former agent. A flashback shows Khalid's introduction to Kabir, who questions Sunil about Khalid's loyalty to the nation, arguing that Khalid's late father, Abdul Rahmani, was a traitor to both the nation and to Kabir himself when he shot him. However, in full awe of Kabir, who he regards as a major inspiration, Khalid insists that he will serve his country, no matter what, and regain his family's honour.
After a successful mission, Kabir takes Khalid to account after noticing that he has a blind spot while aiming a weapon, to which Khalid explains that his father's reputation resulted in him as a child being injured in the right eye by a school bully, which impaired his vision. Kabir however, eventually accepts Khalid after seeing the love and affection he expresses for his mother Nafeesa, inducting him into his special forces team, which consists of fellow field agents Saurabh, Prateek and Muthu, and hacker Aditi Nahta. Kabir plans his next mission, which is targeted at criminal mastermind and terrorist-cum-businessman Rizwan Illiyasi. The team captures Illiyasi, but he reveals to Kabir that there is a mole in his team who is fully loyal to his terrorist cause. Killing Prateek and Muthu, Saurabh reveals himself as the mole; blinded by greed he had accepted Illiyasi's offer of nearly $100 million to betray his country. An enraged Khalid chases after Saurabh, leaving Kabir to deal with Illiyasi alone. Kabir, who nearly succeeds in recapturing Illiyasi, is suddenly shot unconscious by Illiyasi's henchmen. He wakes up in hospital to find a severely injured Khalid also recovering, who tells him that Saurabh is dead.
In the present, Khalid struggles to find Kabir but fails. He is nearly taken off the mission when another agent is murdered, though he convinces Sunil and Sherna to give him one more chance. He manages to find Kabir and learns his next target is Dr. Utpal Biswas. Khalid realizes that Kabir is actually targeting associates of Illiyasi, which include Biswas and Naidu, and is on an undercover mission to recover a secret code that Illiyasi needs. However, Khalid is unable to prevent Biswas from being killed, and a furious Khalid gives chase to Kabir who escapes again.
Kabir is seen doting on a young girl named Roohi. He reminisces about Roohi's single mother Naina Verma, who he had started a relationship with in order to make her a perfect civilian asset. Upon learning of his true identity, Naina becomes mistrustful and hesitant to help Kabir but agrees to continue helping him for her daughter's sake. Naina is sent to spy on Illiyasi's associate Firoze Contractor. However Kabir, who has been in touch with Aditi, discovers from her that among Illiyasi's many contacts is a plastic surgeon, Dr. Mallika Singhal, who had previously helped disguise Illiyasi with plastic surgery. Realizing that Contractor is actually Illiyasi, he rushes to Naina's aid but is too late to save her life.
Khalid traces Kabir through Roohi, and they have a brief discussion at Kabir's hideout when they are suddenly attacked. Both of them fight off the attackers and make it to Aditi's wedding in Kerala, whereupon they recover the drive with the secret code that Illiyasi needs. However, after Kabir hands over the drive to Khalid, Khalid poisons him while sharing a drink with him on his boat. A flashback to the chase between Khalid and Saurabh reveals Khalid being shot dead by Illiyasi, following which Saurabh undergoes plastic surgery to disguise himself as Khalid, much like how Illiyasi became Contractor. On the boat, Saurabh throws the poisoned and seemingly helpless Kabir into the river.
Saurabh returns to Illiyasi, who bases himself on a heavily armed icebreaker ship. Illiyasi enters the code, containing the coordinates for an Indian military satellite monitoring the Indo-Pakistani border that supports communications for Indian military forces in remote areas. He launches an anti-satellite missile to destroy the satellite just before Kabir parachutes aboard and single-handedly assaults the ship, eliminating Illyasi's army. He confronts Saurabh, revealing that he had known that the latter was not Khalid, having seen him aim and shoot in a way which Khalid couldn't do due to his impaired vision, and also for his choice to drink alcohol, considered forbidden by Khalid. Hence, he put Aditi to spy on him and had also acquired an antidote for the poison in his drink. In addition, he had handed Saurabh the wrong coordinates, which turns the missile around in the air and back towards the ship. Deciding Illiyasi has become expendable, Saurabh shoots him dead in the ensuing confrontation and flees. As the ship explodes from the returned missile, Kabir gives chase to Saurabh and overpowers him after an intense fight in a derelict church. The church's dome collapses on Saurabh, killing him.
The intelligence agency honors Khalid posthumously for his sacrifice, with Nafeesa receiving an award from the President. Kabir, still believed by the public to be a deserter, spends time with Roohi, and continues with his next undercover mission after a brief conversation with his boss.

Cast

Development

On Yash Chopra’s birth anniversary, Yash Raj Films announced a new action film starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. Vaani Kapoor was finalised to play the female lead. Two international action choreographers from Hollywood and Korea were employed to design action sequences.
The climax scene of the film was shot actually on the Arctic Circle, becoming the first ever Indian film to do so.
Siddharth the director stated, "We want to push the benchmark of action movies that are made in our country. So, we are bringing two of the biggest action choreographers together to design some of the most outlandish and visually-spectacular sequences. On one hand, we have Andy R Armstrong from Hollywood and on the other, we have Mr SeaYoung Oh, who is an outstanding martial arts action choreographer from South Korea."

Filming

began in the second week of September 2018. The film also has a dance off between the two stars. The film schedule was wrapped up in the beginning of March 2019.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Kumaar. All themes are composed by Sanchit Balhara.

Marketing and release

The film was released on 2 October 2019, coinciding with the Gandhi Jayanti. The official 4K teaser of the film was released on 15 July 2019 by Yash Raj Films. It has garnered 54 million views since it was released. The official trailer of the film was released on 27 August 2019 by Yash Raj Films.

Reception

Critical response

War received generally positive reviews from critics; on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 73% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10.
Among positive reviews, a writer for Bollywood Hungama gave the film four stars out of five, and said "War is an action entertainer which has style as well as enough twists and turns to keep the viewers engrossed. At the box office, the extended weekend, dazzling action, stunning international locales and stylish execution will ensure mammoth footfalls for the film". Republic World gave the film four and a half stars out of five, writing, "Epic action spectacle, rides on watertight script, worldclass action, fast paced and thrilling screenplay. Hrithik Roshan's performance is iconic, Tiger Shroff delivers career best act. Siddhart's vision and direction is superlative". Taran Adarsh gave it four stars out of five and called the film "scapist cinema at its best". Komal Nahta of Film Information opined, "The film could prove to be the starting of a new franchise for the Yash Raj Films banner". Writing for India TV, Sonal gave the film three and a half stars out of five, writing, "Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff of Abbas Mustan kinda twists, turns, characters, situations,logic, gravity, physics,chemistry, and some Ekta Kapoor-esque tricks all tossed together to make a visually spectacular concoction".
Among the reviewers who granted the film mixed to negative reviews, The Times of India rated it three stars out of five and felt the film had "lot of style, stunts and show, but lacking a solid storyline". India Today rated it two and a half stars out of five and wrote, "War is a crowd-puller, but it isn’t meant to further the cause of cinema". Daily News and Analysis gave three stars out of five and wrote, "War seems more like a Hrithik Roshan and YRF come back than anything else". Writing for The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta granted the film two stars out of five, stating, "The chief trouble with War is that all the space is divvied up between Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff, that the poor baddies don’t really get a chance". Writing for Firstpost, Anna M. M. Vetticad gave two stars out of five, opining that the film "could have been a suspenseful, eyecatching, entertaining ride. But for its politics... is a painfully condescending ode to Muslim loyalty to our vatan, an ode that is particularly cynical and offensive". Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film one and a half stars out of five and stated, "Powered by two loose-limbed and resolutely stone-faced male leads, Hrithik and Tiger, War is all style and no substance".

Box office

War opened with collection of on its first day. It is the highest opening day collection for Bollywood films. On the second day it collected, On the third day it collected, taking its total collection to. War has already created six new records as the film reaches to 100 crore mark at the box-office. The film entered the 100 crore club in three days of its release. The extended opening weekend collection of the film at 166.25 crore is the highest opening weekend collection for any 2019 Bollywood film. The film by crossing 200 crore in its opening week has become the fastest Bollywood film of 2019 to achieve the feat.
, with gross of 378.46 crore from India and 97.04 crore from overseas, the film has grossed 475.50 crore worldwide, and has become the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2019.

Awards and nominations

Future

After the success of the film, Anand mentioned that he had an idea to convert the film into a franchise, depending on the audience reaction.