I noticed a weird thing about AK vs AK just before its release. The release was scheduled for Thursday, i.e., 24th December, so I kept looking for the film throughout Friday. I was free so I thought I would do a same day review. But till around some 9 PM, the film was not released but the reviews were already live. As known publications always publish reviews a day before release, I ignored their reviews and looked for user reviews on Google. To my surprise, even user reviews were out. I went back and checked Netflix again. The movie was still in the ‘Coming Soon’ list. So I asked my friend to check her Netflix. Even for her, the film was unreleased. Then I tagged Netflix in my story and asked about the release. I again checked around 11 PM and the film was released.
If the film released late in the evening, I wonder where the user reviews came in from. Let me know in the comments section below if you know at what time the film released (and also the mystery behind user reviews before release).
Coming straight to the point now. How is AK vs AK? Bakwaas. Some people are calling it Anurag Kashyap’s experimental cinema, but the only experiment here was the way it’s being shot. AK vs AK is shot like a documentary. That’s the only difference between other films and this “experimental” film. And as the title says, the film is too fake for us to even assume that it’s real. Obviously, it’s a film so it’s a work of fiction and whatever is shown was not real. It was just a concept. But the makers wanted it to be realistic. They wanted us to believe that it’s all real. And then be mind-blown. But the entire effort was too annoying to be entertaining.
As if The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives was not enough, to be real, AK vs AK also had some real-life namunas. Who were they? Sonam Kapoor and Harshvardhan Kapoor. Fortunately, Sonam Kapoor was as good as non-existent but Harshvardhan Kapoor….???? That guy was a headache. I am not exaggerating. I wasn’t feeling well yesterday and I was watching this movie. Harshvardhan Kapoor’s scene and his hammering dialogues gave me a headache. For the sake of my life and health, I then skipped his remaining scene.
And yes, how can I forget? There was Boney Kapoor in the film for a few seconds. Trust me, I am never blaming Arjun Kapoor or Jahnvi Kapoor for the (non) acting skills from here on.
I watched this movie only because it was an Anurag Kashyap film. But nothing in it was worth watching. The concept, dialogues, performances, the twist at the end, everything was either unconvincing or ‘nothing new.’
The characters were real but the story was a work of fiction. The line between reality and fiction was blur. Here is where they goofed up. They couldn’t maintain the right balance between reality and fiction. As a result, they confused the audience. Another reason behind confusing the audience was their own confusion. At places, it looked like the makers were so overconfident of the concept will be loved simply because it’s experimental that they did not care about what they are making and where they are releasing it. To be honest, some experiments look good only as a college project not when they are being released on a platform like Netflix.
Verdict: Watch it if you want to, but it’s not worth your time.
Streaming On: Netflix
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