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In today’s world, movies are the first choice of entertainment. Not only entertainment, many people seek inspiration (either good or bad) from the characters and the movie itself. Although, we can’t deny the impact of lead roles on overall movie performance in box office but we should never forget to appreciate the hard work of producers, directors, screenwriters, designers, cinematographers, editors, supporting actors and musicians. There is nothing wrong in saying:

A well written and directed movie always leaves a significant impact on human psychology, behavior and overall society.

About the movie

‘AK vs AK’ is a suspense thriller movie. It’s a rivalry between a self-obsessed director and a self-obsessed superstar. Story begins with a live interview where both AKs are guests. During the interview, things go bad as Anurag Kashyap thinks that actors’ time has gone and now film’s performance in box office solely depends on directors. While Anil Kapoor thinks that film’s performance in box office stills depends on the lead role. As the interview goes further, the situation becomes more and more worse as both AKs target each other personally and Anurag Kashyap throws water on Anil Kapoor’s face.

Even after that interview, relation between both AKs keeps worsening more and more. Their rivalry ended up with Anurag Kashyap kidnapping Anil Kapoor’s daughter, Sonam Kapoor. Anurag Kashyap challenges Anil Kapoor to prove that he is a hero by finding his daughter before sunrise (~10 hours). I will not be a spoiler here by telling you the entire story.

Although, this movie has a solid beginning, but the epilogue is not up to the bar. The experimental reality show style filled with long takes, will definitely give the audience a unique experience.

This movie is just a one time watch. This movie has a lack of good dialogues. In the entire movie, not a single dialogue which could stuck in the audience’s mind. You can also find some cringe dialogues just to showcase the stardom of Anil Kapoor.

Rating

Movie Rating

Actors Rating

Anil Kapoor

Undoubtedly, Anil Kapoor is a one of the finest actor in Bollywood, and he is entertaining audiences since 1977 with his fabulous permeances. Anil Kapoor’s performance throughout this movie is great. He is truly living in the character. In this movie, where war is between two self-obsessed characters (one is superstar and other is flop film director), I was expecting equally powerful opponents but Anil Kapoor is dominating over Anurag Kashyap with his performance. It might be because Anurag Kashyap, in actual life, is not an actor but a director.

As this movie is based on the real life stardoms of Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap, I feel like there was a bit of exaggeration in Anil Kapoor image. This movie is showcasing him as the biggest superstar of Bollywood. I’d say… there was a time when he was a superstar, but as of now, he is mostly playing supporting actor roles.

There is no doubt that Anil Kapoor is superb in playing emotional roles, and his dialogue delivery and timing are great. Although, Anil Kapoor performed his part really well, but I feel like there is a shortage of good dialogues in this movie. From time to time, there was a need of good dialogue, but they crushed our expectations. Anyway, if you need just one reason to watch this movie, it’s Anil Kapoor’s performance.

Anurag Kashyap

Since a long back, people were living in the nuance that Films are all about Heroes. That’s still true, but if you ask me or anyone else about a person who has changed the audience’s focus towards directors, then you’d probably get the name ‘Anurag Kashyap’. It’s extremely difficult to find a Bollywood fan who hasn’t watched the movies like ‘Gulaal’, ‘Black Friday’, ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Ugly’ or ‘Raman Raghav’. Undoubtedly, ‘Anurag Kashyap’ is one of the greatest director in Bollywood. But it doesn’t mean that he’s a great actor as well. ‘Anurag Kashyap’s performance in this movie is not up to the bar. ‘AK vs AK’ is a suspense thriller movie. The demand to the script was to put tough villein against Anil Kapoor. Throughout the movie, his performance is continuously being dominated by ‘Anil Kapoor’s performance. Even though he is doing decent acting in first half, but in the second half, his performance degraded even more. Apart from the fact that this movie is all about AKs, there is no other reason to put him opposite to ‘Anil Kapoor’.

Undoubtedly, Anurag Kashyap is a superb director, but in acting, he is not even average.

Sonam Kapoor

So, finally, we’re here to review Sonam Kapoor’s performance. Frankly, there is no fun in reviewing Sonam’s performance. As we all know that, it’s cringe. You can check ‘AK vs AK’ reviews on any website, they all speak the same about Sonam. She was part of this movie only for 5-10 minutes, but she made those 5-10 minutes difficult to watch. She again proved that acting is not a cup to tea for her and she is in Bollywood as a product of nepotism.

Harshvardhan Kapoor

I don’t think we need to waste time on reviewing Harshvardhan Kapoor’s performance. He didn’t deserve a single minute in the film, but he was there just because this movie is based on Anil Kapoor and his family. Although he did acting but mostly… over. I mean over acting. Let’s not waste more time here and finish it by giving him 0..?..um.. ok 0.5 star. That’s it.

Direction

This film is directed by Vikramaditya Motwane who has known for his talent and has already directed some great movies like ‘Udaan’, ‘Trapped’ and ‘Bhavesh Joshi Superhero’. As we all know that the concept of this movie is completely new and experimental, I really appreciate the effort of the director to come up with such a unique idea. The beginning of this movie is really solid, but the ending didn’t do the justice with the film. I found the ending flat and pretty predictable. There were no twists in the story as you expect in a suspense thriller or from a Vikramaditya Motwane’s movie. The unique experimental reality show style, filled with long takes, definitely makes this movie worth watching, at least once.

Cinematography

Cinematography in the movie is pretty unique and haven’t been seen before in any other Bollywood movie. It was the demand of the script to make this movie look like a reality show where shots are taken relatively long and filled with a realistic conversation between movie characters. Although, we know that this is an experimental movie but I still feel like, in some shots, placement of the camera was not perfect. For eg: When Anil Kapoor was running behind the taxi driver, camera person is way behind and he/she can’t catch up with Anil Kapoor. As a result, shots like that are not filmed efficiently.