Alpha Review: Alia Bhatt And Sharvari bring the muscle, but YRF forgets to bring a soul
- By Erica Fernandes -
- Jul 03, 2026
I watched Alpha in India’s most popular theater and I was full of expectations but what I saw in this YRF film starring Alia Bhatt and Sharvari alongside Bobby Deol and here is what I feel about a movie which is a copy of several movies.
Let’s give credit where there is due, Alpha gets off to a killer opening. Indian officers Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor) and Fateh Singh Shekhawat (Bobby Deol) form ‘Alpha’, an elite, covert super-soldier program operating on an experimental serum.
It works. Like, really works. Until the brain haemorrhages start. Kaul steals a dose for his ailing pregnant wife; she lives long enough to give birth.
Shekhawat tells him the baby’s property of India and then lies and says she died.
Twenty years later and that baby is Sita (Alia Bhatt), raised in isolation, trained in combat, and on the cusp of discovering the truth. Her secret twin, Durga (Sharvari), living a vastly different life in Spain, is now the only hope in fighting alongside her. It sounds, frankly, like YRF’s Spy Universe has hit a proper golden nugget – a father who’s no father, twin sisters, the whole spiel.
As the franchise’s seventh entry (and the first one entrusted entirely to its female cast), Alpha simply had to be watched.
Where there is consensus on both sides of the fence, both from a critical and fan perspective is the sheer visual splendour and Alia Bhatt more than earning her action star status. Having trained with the same coach who guided John Wick and its predecessors, Bhatt is believable as hell and the hand-to-hand combat sequences between her and Sharvari is, hands down, the film’s liveliest part as both actors are seen committed to causing real pain to each other, rather than simply pose.
And yes, Bobby Deol is proving that his villainous phase is potentially his finest, as he holds his own opposite Bhatt, particularly when the vociferous menace of his tone, heavily inspired by Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan’s, becomes evident.
You can count on Anil Kapoor for his customary gravitas, exotic locales to establish the global scale of the film, and no, the internet has not lied about Hrithik Roshan’s guest appearance as Kabir; it’s smooth, efficient and will inevitably become the biggest highlight of Alpha 2026 as YRF build up to what is undoubtedly the next installment of the spy saga.
Where Alpha Fails!
Where things fall flat – and they do, hard – is the film’s incessant predilection for style over substance. By revealing the central emotional conceit in the teaser and exposing the plot twists and turns in the trailer, the eventual ‘reveal’ offers little to no impact, a shoulder shrug instead of an ‘oh my god’.
Furthermore, what started as a captivating arc in the first half for Fateh-a soldier whose blind loyalty is brutally weaponized by a system that promptly abandons him – unravels into an overly simplistic and frankly boring second act. What’s worse, this arc inadvertently renders India’s own special forces to look somewhat incompetent.
The dialogues in Alpha are’t exactly its strongest suit. Midway through, Durga can be heard questioning Sita as to why she maintains such a grim demeanour and one can’t help but feel the screenwriter is actually referring to Bhatt’s on-screen persona, rather than developing her character. The downpours which dominate every emotional beat in Alpha begin to lose their novelty and seem to stem from a lack of ideas from the art department.
The Alia Bhatt Conundrum
It is here that the dividing line appears between the two camps. One lauds Bhatt for her committed effort in a physically demanding, technically intricate role, whereas the other considers the actress to be too serene and controlled, given the intensity of rage and betrayal her character is meant to represent. As is often the case with YRF, the truth of Alpha may lie somewhere in between – Bhatt convinces the audience she can kick ass, but not necessarily why she’s kicking it.
Should you watch Alpha?
Alpha is not exactly a disaster, it is merely a decent watch dressed up in a fantastic, engaging premise that fails to reach its full potential. The film is grand in scale, boasts strong performances from its leading actresses, has a compelling villain in Bobby Deol and clearly proves that a female-led entry in a spy franchise can still attract massive audiences. What Alpha lacks is a cohesive and suspenseful screenplay to match the standards set by some of the earlier installments in the YRF Spy Universe.
If your expectations are based on grand visuals, stellar performances from the lead cast and a cameo that’s guaranteed to break the internet, Alpha 2026 will satisfy.
But if you are expecting another War or Pathaan, you’ll need to calibrate expectations for a movie that’s a respectable weekday viewing, not a franchise game-changer.