Nothing communicates the listlessness of Hindi cinema over the last six years better than the diffidence of Bollywood’s two flagship studios: Dharma Productions and Yash Raj Films (YRF). A staleness has pervaded through their overall slates. YRF’s Spyverse branding of cross-border harmony was battered by Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar films. While Dhar’s films have a gritty self-seriousness to them, the spyverse was nimble and had the ability to laugh at its dramatic license. Dhar’s films are nakedly pro-establishment as opposed to the spyverse, which has managed to remain relatively balanced. This is why they have been mocked. But now, if Shiv Rawail’s Alpha – which positions two women spies at its centre for the very first time – is to be believed, the trolls might be getting under producer Aditya Chopra’s skin.Like most spy films today, Alpha does not waste time in exploiting the martyrdom of soldiers. The film begins with scores of caskets wrapped in tricolour, as a brooding Colonel Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor) stands beside them sombrely. He is soon joined by Colonel Fateh Singh Lakhawat (Bobby Deol), who shares with him a proposal for a super-soldier programme codenamed ‘Alpha.’ The scene is taking place a day after the Kargil war in 1999 and Lakhawat assures Kaul that if they manage to make a serum that turns ordinary soldiers into enhanced killing machines, they will be able to limit Indian casualties.Aided by the research of a Dr. Varghese (Dibyendu Bhattacharya, a go-to actor for scientists and top cops nowadays), the serum is developed and injected into dozens of male soldiers, who do not survive beyond a few weeks. A soap opera-esque flashback shows Kaul stealing the serum and secretly administering it to his pregnant wife (Dia Mirza, another go-to actor to play the ‘headstrong’ wife, destined to die within a scene or two), who has been diagnosed with a weak heart. She is told that she will most certainly not survive the pregnancy, to which she responds, “ziddi ladkiyaan duniya badal sakti hai (stubborn girls can change the world!)” A lot is packed into this 20-min flashback, where Kaul loses his wife and his daughter is stolen by Lakhawat for his own lab experiment, being the only survivor of the serum. She grows up to become Sita (Alia Bhatt), a lithe assassin.Co-written by Sridhar Raghavan (the unofficial showrunner of the spyverse) and Soumil Shukla, the timidity of Alpha appears baked into the script at its inception. There is a lack of assurance to let the weight of a big budget (about the same as Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger, 14 years ago) be borne by one woman star. Hence, it brings in a young star, Sharvari Wagh – the decision reeks of a studio hedging its bets.Alia Bhatt and Sharvari Wagh in Alpha, Screengrab from trailer, Photo: YouTube/YRF.The third corner of this ‘experiment’ is the film’s villain, revealed as Lakhawat himself, after he continues to secretly run the Alpha programme despite it being scrapped after casualties, and he is shipped off to a special forces base in Cherrapunji. Deol’s casting appears to be a direct consequence of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal (2023). He’s sporting a similar silver-fox look. I like the weariness in his voice and his on-screen stature as the antagonist. It is his pep talks in inconsistent Haryanvi to a young lady that made me picture him as a Mahavir Singh Phogat in uniform.Apart from Raghavan and Shukla’s overwritten script, Rawail’s spiritless directorial voice means that Bhatt, among the promising actors, is left in the lurch. Sita’s styling appears heavily inspired from Lara Croft – the single plait of hair and the acrobatic action choreography. Bhatt has made a name for herself as a reliable actor in her first decade and she is slowly pivoting outside her comfort zone to become vestigial parts in projects, where her histrionics have limited space. Over here, the 32-year-old is playing a 20-year-old. Bhatt’s insights into her character pale next to Saoirse Ronan in Joe Wright’s Hanna (2011), where 17-year-old Ronan played the titular teen assassin. Bhatt does bring a rare flourish to her part in one scene, when she listens to Kaul’s sob-story flashback of him being her father and dismisses him for having no familial resemblance. Screengrab from trailer, Photo: YouTube/YRF.Wagh, as Durga, at best personifies a producer’s insecurity. Introduced in a montage that looks straight out of an athleisure commercial, Durga’s optimism and faith is meant to contrast Sita’s nihilism and distrust. It is such a binary screenwriting choice that both Wagh and Bhatt come off looking silly, especially in a strange, road-trip sequence around the lost-and-found sisters. There is another tricky moment here when the two women strip down to their Calvin Kleins and leap off a cliff into a river, looking unnaturally joyous (close to a menthol soap advert). As much as I understand even the men have been objectified (Hrithik Roshan in War, Shah Rukh Khan in Pathaan) and that appears to be the ‘vibe’ of the franchise, I am sure a more subversive choice could have been made by a film that wants to harp on ‘girl power.’The action set-pieces are competent and the best YRF’s money can buy. However, neither Bhatt nor Wagh are given character-specific fighting styles. There is a monotony to the fight scenes, which look like leftovers from a shelved Tiger Shroff film. An action sequence inside a monastery, featuring a special appearance by Roshan (already spoiled by the film’s trailer), is the only inspired set-piece, where Roshan momentarily becomes a Shaolin master. A sequence where Roshan’s Kabir catches bullets and redirects them towards their shooters, which would look comical with another actor, looks plausible here. That is the fun of competent craft fused with suspension of disbelief. Screengrab from trailer, Photo: YouTube/YRF.I have never been a fan of YRF’s spyverse, except for the first half of Pathaan. But I would prefer these silly films over Dhar’s venomous propaganda. However, this gap might be vanishing slowly. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) (an ally in the Tiger films and Pathaan) is shown to be scheming to weaponise the Alpha programme against India, after which, the phrase ‘Pakistani fauji (soldier)’ is uttered like a slur. I am willing to wager these adjustments were made after the success of Dhar’s films. I wish Chopra had also paid some heed to Sriram Raghavan (Ikkis).Alpha might be the lesser of the evils, but I also feel audiences will see through the half-hearted jingoism. To replicate Dhurandhar’s success, the spyverse will need Dhar’s singleminded shamelessness. I am rooting for Aditya Chopra and Sridhar Raghavan to find another route.*Alpha is playing in theatres