Aiyaary movie review: Sidharth Malhotra fails to convince; Manoj Bajpayee carries entire Neeraj Pandey-directorial in his shoulder

After making a few waves over its stimulating trailers and posters, Sidharth Malhotra-Manoj Bajpayee starrer Aiyaary finally hit the theatres on February 16.

Earlier, films like A Wednesday, Special 26, Baby had proved Neeraj Pandey's rapport for thrillers. But it seems like this time with Aiyaary, the director has failed to maintain the momentum in the box office.

With a running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, the thriller deals with national security, political corruption and patriotism all of which are known to be the favourite work genres of Pandey.

While Sidharth Malhotra is seen playing an Indian army officer, Major Jai Bakshi, Manoj Bajypayee has proved his solid acting ability as Colonel Abhay Singh yet again. Sidharth's performance as Bakshi failed to draw attentions of his audience while his romantic angle with Rakul may also give you a feel of irritation.

Supporting actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Adil Hussain left no stone unturned to keep the audience rooting for the film till the end.

However, their characters have hardly helped the film to manage a place in hearts of audience and Bajpayee simply carried the entire film on his shoulder.

Before you rush to your nearby theatre to catch a glimpse of the thriller, here we bring you some quick reviews on the film.

1. NDTV:

Aiyaary, comatose and convoluted, is like a patient who's been wheeled in on a stretcher and declared dead on arrival. It never manages to get up on its feet and break into a saunter, let alone a sprint. The background music goes all guns blazing in the hope that the film's snail-like pace will not lull the audience to sleep, but the persistent clanging that accompanies the lack of action is inevitably ineffectual. It doesn't spur the narrative out of its stupor and into a state of any sort of urgency.

2. Hindustan Times:

Apart from the ‘80s style opening credit, nothing actually works in favour of Aiyaary that wants to compress many issues in one film. The intentions are noble, but the execution is totally off the hook. Pandey, despite being in his zone, fails to control the pace of the film and ends up with a clogged version of what he thought is a nice thriller.

3.The Hindu

The writing has no sense of proportion or balance. A character like Baburao (Naseeruddin Shah) is introduced early left hanging till the very end. If that was to build suspense it’s all ho-hum. Most of the other characters, including the DSD team, don’t rise above being half baked sketches.

4. Financial Express

The Adarsh Housing Society scam projected by Pandey in the film wasn’t any impressive either. Aiyaary may have managed to convey its intended message to the viewers had it managed to gain some amount of pace. In terms of music, the song ‘Lae Dooba’ from the movie has made it to the radio charts and is popular among youngsters. By and large, Aiyaary is a big disappointment due the flaws in its script and also its lengthy run-time but we are yet to see how it fares at the Box Office.

5. Times of India

‘Aiyaary’ has quite a few lethargic scenes that are long-drawn and don’t do much to further the story or add to the characters. The complexity of the overarching plot allows for some exposition, but the screenplay goes overboard and often loses pace. The film could make a far more intriguing watch with a tighter edit devoid of all the dramatized entries and exits. Those expecting the clever Neeraj Pandey twists will be left wanting more. But ‘Aiyaary’ has measured performances that resound louder than its bombastic score, and they alone make it a worthwhile watch.