‘Udta Teer’ movie review: Ayushmann Khurrana is on target in this spy misadventure

A Pakistani spy loses his memory and unwittingly starts working for Indian intelligence. Sometimes, a single-sentence logline is enough to trigger an urge to watch a film. Writer Aakash Kaushik, making his directorial debut with an espionage satire, nails that hook.

Memory is perhaps a spy’s biggest asset. He assumes a new identity, but what happens if the operative sheds his original personality altogether? It opens floodgates for creative possibilities. When Bilal Ahmad (Ayushmann Khurrana), a Pakistani mole who has infiltrated an Indian security agency, loses recollection of his true role in a sudden blast, the script flips the spy action genre on its head.

With Laxmikant Pyarelal’s iconic Nayak Nahin Khalnayak tune, repurposed by Sachin-Jigar, playing in the background, Bilal now firmly believes he is a hyper-patriotic Indian soldier, Vikrant out to guard his country from the evil designs of the enemy. Here we have Mukul Dev, in his last hurrah, playing a top terrorist called Azhar Maqsood with relish. This sudden shift in loyalty sends his wife (Sara Ali Khan gets little space to operate), fellow moles and assets (Suhail Nayyar and Brijendra Kala are suitably bewildered), and Pakistani handlers into a tizzy, spinning sharp situational humor out of their sheer humiliation.

Pandering to the so-called mood of the nation, the toneechoes those hyperbolic cricket advertisements where Pakistani players are cartoonishly outsmarted and sends a message to Pakistani ‘sympathisers’ within.

But there is more. Whether you like it or not, Hindi cinema’s current scene has its political syntax firmly divided into a pre-Dhurandhar and post-Dhurandhar world. Responding to the environment, producers Karan Johar and Guneet Monga join hands to flip Dhurandhar’s grim, hyper-nationalistic premise on its head. The satire reaches its creative peak when memory loss starts working like an accidental equaliser. Kaushik flashes real promise by using this amnesiac haze to hold a mirror up to both sides of the border, exposing the same absurdities in their spy games. Without underlining, for a moment it shakes us from our jingoism-induced slumber and reminds us that both sides of the border nurture their own version of Hamza Ali Mazari. It makes you chuckle under the breath, but Kaushik seems to be seeking boisterous guffaws from the multiplex galleries. 

In a clever casting stroke, Kaushik populates the plot with actors who rarely trade in pure comedy, dropping Rahul Bose, Ram Kapoor, and Gulshan Grover into a blender of chaotic, situational madness. The innuendos like Kashmiri Pulao and mixed vegetable work for a while before Kaushik turns them into caricatures. From Mir (Grover) to Sharif (Kavya Kumar), character names echo real actors in the region, but the writing slips into buffoonery after promising a boundary-pushing geopolitical farce.

Perhaps it has something to do with Kaushik’s muscle memory. Drawing on his experience writing hit installments for the Housefull and Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchises, he relies on rapid pacing and slapstick comedy to keep the lowest common denominator in good humor, with lowbrow gags repeatedly reducing medical conditions to mindless ridicule. 

Rahul shows his class even when he is reduced to a punching bag, and Ayushmann finds his footing by refusing to let Bilal devolve into a caricature. He portrays him as a man thrown off by his sudden lack of identity. Stylish yet leaning into his trademark everyday vulnerability, the actor keeps it watchable even when the jokes lose their bite.

Meanwhile, Kaushik seems in no mood to live up to the title, which, colloquially, implies inviting uninvited trouble. So, after briefly promising to take the road less travelled, the screenplay detours back onto the comfortable, well-worn highway of nationalistic fervour woven into broad-gauge comedy. The premise isn’t skit-deep; the screenplay keeps shifting shape, but Kaushik settles for a festive audience hungry for quick gags, Pakistan-baiting and chest-thumping cinema. It happens when Dharma cross-pollinates with Sikhya to maximise eyeballs!

Udta Teer is currently running in theatres.