Ahead of John Abraham’s RAW, here are top 6 Hindi spy thrillers that will keep you on the edge of your seat
Ahead of the release of John Abraham’s Romeo Akbar Walter, we bring you six of the best spy thrillers seen recently in Bollywood.
Actor John Abraham returns as a spy in yet another patriotic film, Romeo Akbar Walter, this Friday. Directed by Robbie Grewal, the film is inspired by true events that took place during the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. Ahead of RAW’s release, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite Hindi spy thrillers in recent years -- this is a genre that has got a recent amount of airing in the recent years.
While Salman Khan’s Tiger franchise -- blockbusters Ek Tha Tiger and Tiger Zinda Hai, Saif and Katrina’s Phantom, Taapsee Pannu’s Naam Shabana and John’s excellent Madras Cafe get honourable mention, here are desi spy thrillers that are our absolute favourites but in no specific order. From gritty realism to machismo-fuelled espionage films, you will find everything here...
Raazi
Director Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi is sweeping the awards season and all for the right reasons.
Raazi is about a young woman from Kashmir who marries a Pakistani military official as India and its neighbour are on the cusp of the 1971 war. There, she has to find information on a threat looming large on India and do it all with great care and smartness. She hides the surveillance equipment in her trousseau and masks her operations as a spy in the coy smile of a bride.
Where Raazi stands taller than any other Hindi film about spies was in its human, rather than hyper-nationalist, treatment of the subject. It showed that lives are ruined on both sides of the border during a war. In the end, when people have been through so much loss and suffering, a spy’s successful mission may not be a moment to celebrate but a cruel reflection on the cost of it all.
Based on Harinder Sikka’s book Calling Sehmat, the film also deserves praise for showing spies who put heir lives at risk for the country don’t do so while wearing tuxedos and sipping martinis. More often than not, they are the ones hiding in plain sight. These spies could be running a simple grocery shop in crowded street of Pakistan, a flower kiosk next to a mosque or just a young bride sent to the lion’s den on her own with a little training and a lot of courage.
Baby
When Baby released in 2015, audiences were taken aback by its realistic feel as much as its perspective. The Neeraj Pandey directorial, in many ways, was a departure from the historical Indian way of dealing with terror – of preventing terror strikes. With Baby, the fight was taken to the enemy camp – here was a bang of daredevil undercover agents, who would not simply prevent a terror act from occurring, but would actively seek to eliminate the masterminds.
In many ways, it also reflects new India’s irritation with status quo – it is unwilling to accept victimhood status and wants to take up the challenge head-on and finish it. To that effect, Baby served the purpose well. Hence, we saw a bunch of motivated undercover agents seek out the mastermind of a terrorist organisation from his hideout in another nation and bring him home for trail.
The film, more a police action drama than strictly an espionage thriller, saw measured performances by all its principle characters – Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, KK Menon and its support cast, including two Pakistani actors (Rasheed Naz and Mikaal Zulfiqar).
Of particular mention were the film’s stunts. For Akshay to pull them off with confidence was expected, but the surprise package was Taapsee Pannu, who trained in Israeli martial form Krav Maga and her sequence of a fist fight with Sushant Singh was as real as could get.
Baby was also a departure from the way action thrillers have been shot in India. Bereft of any song and dance and prominent romantic track, the film steered clear of melodrama and that was to be its calling card.
16 December
Directed by debutant Mani Shankar, 16 December opened to critical appreciation but failed to enthuse the audience. However, the film has acquired a niche following over the years. Starring Milind Soman, Aditi Gowitrikar, Depannita Sharma, Gulshan Grover, Sushant Singh and Danny Denzongpa in important roles, 16 December was about a plot to destroy Delhi with a nuclear bomb and how Indian officers foil the plan.
The film showcased some of the best tech devices and techniques used by spies. How the Indian revenue department officers trace a trail of money travelling through a Swiss Bank to a terrorist and then stop a nuclear attack just in time to save the city forms the main narrative of the film.
Gulshan plays the terrorist who plans to avenge Pakistan’s defeat in the 1971 war and the foundation of Bangladesh. A kitschy act, Grover brought a manic energy to the role, ensuring a thrilling experience.
Vishwaroopam
Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan delivered one of the most gripping espionage thrillers in Vishwaroopam. He not just played the male lead but also wrote and directed the film. The film showed the actor as an undercover RAW agent and a Muslim by religion living under the guise of a Hindu Kathak dancer in the US.
It boasted of a well-knit, extensive plot that promised suspense and thrill from the very beginning. Kamal played a former Al Qaeda trainer who spied for India and led the US forces to their terror shells. The story goes back and forth in time to unravel a plot where in the terrorists are scraping radioactive material to build a dirty bomb in New York.
But the high point of the film was Kamal’s impeccable performance as a Kathak teacher Viz, which was poles apart from his spy avatar, Wisam. How the actor transcended effortlessly in between the two characters while not missing out on a single beat makes for an interesting watch. Kamal had already impressed his fans with his unimaginable role of a woman in Chachi 420 but he took it many notches higher by flipping between the two characters without any facial makeover.
Rahul Bose as Omar, the head of a terror group, Pooja Kumar as Kamal’s wife Nirupama, Shekhar Kapur as Kamal’s confidante and Andrea Jeremiah also played prominent roles in the film.
The film was opposed by many Muslim groups and even faced a complete ban in Tamil Nadu.
D-Day
Before I tell you everything that D-Day is, here is everything this superb spy thriller-action drama is not – there is no superhero starring in the film who swoops in and provides redemption to an entire country, the film’s central plot of bringing India’s most wanted man (here’s looking at you Dawood) often is on the verge of coming undone and those holding the strings of the entire operation are flawed. Ergo, a human drama that is steeped in geopolitical reality of India and its neighbour where not all Indians are patriotic and not all Pakistanis are corrupt fools.
Director Nikhil Advani guides this ensemble film starring Irrfan Khan, Arjun Rampal, Huma Qureshi and Rishi Kapoor with a sure hand, it has been shot at real locations in Karachi and the performances are top-notch -- especially watch out for Kapoor as Goldman, a dead ringer for Dawood Ibrahim. D-Day’s biggest strength is that it always remains in the realms of possible.
Also read: Here are Ajay Devgn’s 28 finest films to celebrate his 28 years in Bollywood
Agent Vinod
Making movies that nobody else could (or more likely, would) was one of the founding philosophies of Saif Ali Khan’s production company, Illuminati Films, whose second movie was the big-budget action thriller, Agent Vinod.
It was a sleek movie - which like so many of Saif’s films would have found a bigger audience online - directed with flair by AndhaDhun’s Sriram Raghavan. If nothing else, revisit its phenomenal single-take action sequence on YouTube to get a sense of the kind of boundaries that film was pushing in mainstream Bollywood, while having great fun playing in the James Bond sandbox.
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