Alpha is built around Alia Bhatt, and the film never lets you forget it. She owns the screen as a battle-scarred agent, blending vulnerability with ferocity in a way that keeps you emotionally hooked even when the script gets wobbly.
Her action scenes are muscular, her close-ups loaded with feeling, and she single-handedly lifts several portions that might otherwise have felt flat. This is Alia in full star mode, and Alpha leans heavily on that presence.
Sharvari: promising, but sidelined
Sharvari walks into the film with the promise of being a co‑lead, and for a while, Alpha seems eager to set up a dynamic, layered female spy duo. Then the screenplay quietly nudges her to the margins.
She gets moments — sharp, stylish, and emotionally textured — but they are too few and too scattered. You can almost see the film hesitate every time she’s about to break out, choosing instead to circle back to Alia’s arc. The result: a talented actor left circling the story rather than driving it.
The return of the Pakistan narrative
Just when you thought Bollywood’s spy universe had exhausted its cross‑border tropes, Alpha pulls the Pakistan card out again. The film revisits familiar terrain — hostile networks, covert ops, shadow wars — and uses it as the backdrop for its personal and political drama.
There are flashes where the geopolitical tension works, adding stakes and urgency. But there are also stretches that feel like déjà vu, with the narrative choosing familiar “enemy state” beats instead of pushing into fresher, more complex territory.
Story and pacing: high concept, mixed execution
On paper, Alpha has everything: a morally twisted origin story, layered family conflict, double agents, secret missions and explosive action set pieces. On screen, the film often feels overstuffed.
Too many subplots jostle for attention — personal trauma, patriotism, betrayal, romance, revenge — and not all of them land with equal force. The first half grips you, the second starts to sag under the weight of melodrama and repetition. You get big moments, but not always a smooth emotional build‑up to them.
Action and visuals: slick, but familiar
The choreography is polished, the frames look expensive and the set pieces are staged with confidence. Alpha wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with the biggest titles in the spy genre, and visually, it comes close.
Yet a lot of the action feels like a remix of what we’ve already seen — aerial shots, gunfights in glowing tunnels, hand‑to‑hand combat in tight spaces. It’s entertaining, but rarely jaw‑dropping. You walk out remembering Alia’s intensity more than any single stunt or sequence.
Supporting cast: strong faces, limited impact
Alpha surrounds Alia and Sharvari with powerful screen presences, including a menacing antagonist and seasoned senior officials who add gravitas with just a few lines or glances.
But much like Sharvari, several supporting players feel under‑used. They enter with promise, hint at richer backstories, and then get folded back into the machinery of Alia’s central arc and the larger patriotic narrative. The film keeps planting seeds it doesn’t fully water.
Verdict: watch for Alia, wish for more
Alpha is the kind of film that grips you in moments rather than as a seamless whole. It delivers a commanding Alia Bhatt, a tantalising but under‑served Sharvari, and a familiar Pakistan backdrop that gives the story political edge but not always originality.
For audiences hungry for a female‑fronted spy thriller, it’s absolutely worth a watch — just don’t go in expecting the genre to be reinvented. Alpha shines brightest when it trusts its women and their emotional complexity; every time it retreats into safe tropes, you can’t help feeling the film left a stronger, bolder version of itself on the table.
