‘Alpha’ Squanders Alia and Sharvari
YRF’s first female-led Spy Universe thriller promised a new era of heroines — only to trap its stars in an oddly unfeminist story.
Long before the Internet went into overdrive with spotting peak detailing in Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar franchise, Yash Raj brought us globe-trotting spy ventures, from Salman Khan-starrer Ek Tha Tiger (2012) to Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan (2023) to, most recently, Hrithik Roshan’s War 2 (2025). The films are part of a well-oiled franchise, headlined by male superstars who even show up in cameos in other spy worlds. Though there are female spies, too, from Katrina Kaif’s Zoya to Deepika Padukone’s Rubai, they’re not headlining the movies.
Shiv Rawail’s Alpha, the latest Yash Raj Spy Universe film, breaks from this mold, building a world where women theoretically take the lead. It feels like a timely intervention and a natural progression. This time, the women are no longer the heroes’ sidekicks, but are granted their own individual heroism. Yet, Alpha ends up being a disservice to the leads, Alia Bhatt and Sharvari, and to its spy film predecessors. It’s a bafflingly ironic project that offsets the potential of its very premise.