The Big Picture
- The film Fighter is a Bollywood action movie directed by Siddarth Anand and includes A-list stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, and Anil Kapoor.
- The trailer showcases intense aerial combat sequences and hints at a revenge plot after the loss of a comrade in an enemy attack.
- Fighter follows the wave of nationalistic cinema seen in films like Uri: The Surgical Strike and Gadar 2.
The blockbuster film Top Gun: Maverick raised more than a few eyebrows about the filmmakers’ decision not to give its “villains” a national identity. Even though Maverick didn’t exactly avoid wading into geopolitics — the plot involved the destruction of a nuclear base — audiences were never told who the enemy actually was. That isn’t the case with Fighter, the new Bollywood military action movie closely modeled on Top Gun. The film’s latest trailer, which was unveiled on Monday, not only identified Pakistan as the primary adversary, but also identified the film itself as belonging to a new wave of nationalistic Indian cinema.
Directed Siddharth Anand, who delivered the blockbuster Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan only a year ago, Fighter features the A-list stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor. Roshan plays a fighter pilot named Patty, while Padukone plays a helicopter expert named Minni. Kapoor stars as their squadron leader, Rocky. While the first half of the trailer is mostly dedicated to showing off the film’s various aerial combat sequences, things take a drastic turn around the half-way mark, when it is strongly suggested that the gang loses one of their own in an enemy attack, while another fellow soldier is made a prisoner of war.
The enemy is revealed to be Pakistani terrorists, with a particularly evil-looking man serving as their leader. An emotionally distraught Patty and Minni are tasked by Rocky with avenging their fallen comrade’s death, which leads to several more glimpses of the film’s dog-fights. But the trailer ends with a tease of a more grounded combat sequence, one that involves Patty beating down the terrorist leader with his bare hands, and making a crude reference to the complicated relations shared by India and Pakistan.
‘Fighter’ Marks Hrithik Roshan’s Third Collaboration With Director Siddharth Anand
In this new wave of nationalistic cinema, only one mainstream Bollywood blockbuster has avoided vilifying India’s neighboring nation: last year’s Salman Khan-starrer Tiger 3. To a large extent, even Pathaan mostly resisted involving Pakistan in the main story, and went so far as to include a romantic subplot involving the central character and a Pakistani secret agent. But Fighter appears to be more along the lines of Uri: The Surgical Strike, the 2019 blockbuster film that is largely responsible for starting this new wave, which reached a crescendo some months ago, with the legacy sequel Gadar 2.
Roshan last starred in the gangster drama Vikram Vedha, while Padukone joined SRK in both Pathaan and Jawan. Kapoor, on the other hand, is coming off the controversial crime epic Animal, in which he played the protagonist’s father. Western audiences would recognize Kapoor from his supporting roles in Slumdog Millionaire and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Padukone from her appearance in xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Fighter will be released in theaters on January 25, coinciding with India’s Republic Day holiday. You can watch the trailer here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
