Swaroopa Ghosh

''War'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films. Written by Anand, Shridhar Raghavan and Abbas Tyrewala on the basis of an original story by Chopra and Anand, it serves as the third installment in the YRF Spy Universe. The film stars Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the lead roles, with Vaani Kapoor and Ashutosh Rana in pivotal roles; the story follows an Indian RAW agent on an assignment to eliminate his former mentor who has gone rogue.

Principal photography commenced in September 2018. Tentatively titled ''Fighters'', the title was announced as ''War'' through a teaser on 15 July 2019. The film was made on an estimated budget of with a further spent on print and advertising. Two songs were composed by Vishal–Shekhar while brothers Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara composed the background score, replacing Anand's frequent collaborators Salim–Sulaiman, who had previously composed the background score of ''Bang Bang!'', which also starred Roshan.

''War'' was theatrically released on 2 October 2019 along with dubbed versions of Telugu and Tamil languages, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti. It received positive reviews with praise towards its action scenes , visuals, direction , cinematography, soundtrack, along with Roshan and Shroff's performances. It eventually emerged as a major success grossing , becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019.

A sequel titled ''War 2'' is in production and is expected to release on 14 August 2025.

Plot

In New Delhi, Major Kabir Dhaliwal is assigned to assassinate an Iraqi terrorist named Farid Haqqani, but instead kills veteran RAW agent V. K. Naidu declaring himself to be a rogue. Defence Minister Sherna Patel and Colonel Sunil Luthra assign Kabir's former student Captain Khalid Rahmani to eliminate him.

In a flashback, Khalid Rahmani yearns to join Kabir's squad, but is initially rejected due to Khalid's father Major Abdul Rahmani betraying the army in a previous mission, leaving Kabir with two gunshot wounds and his partner dead. After being persuaded by Luthra, Kabir is openly Hostile towards khalid and reluctantly agrees to let Khalid join his team. The squad consists of agents Saurabh, Prateek, Muthu and Aditi.

The team goes on a successful mission in Tikrit, Iraq to kill Haqqani's associates and are able to arrest a terrorist named Basheer Hassib, causing their main target Rizwan Illyasi, a terrorist turned businessman to come out of hiding. Despite the mission's success, Kabir notices that Khalid missed many of his targets from his right side and lacks peripheral vision, leading to Kabir threatening Khalid for removal from his squad. Khalid reveals that as a result of his father's betrayal, his eyesight was partially damaged due to a bullying incident in his childhood. Seeing his love for his mother and country, Khalid gains Kabir's trust and gets reinstated. The team captures Illyasi in a mission in Marrakesh, during which Illyasi informs Kabir that he planted a mole within the team. Saurabh reveals himself as the mole and kills Prateek and Muthu. A shootout ensues between Kabir and one of Illyasi's men. Kabir gets shot in neck and wakes up in a hospital a few days later. There, he meets an injured Khalid who tells him that he killed Saurabh.

In the present, Khalid is nearly taken off the mission until Lt. Col. Jimmy Shroff is brutally killed by Kabir, who intercepts Khalid on a metro, revealing his next target to be Dr. Uptal Biswas in Lisbon. Khalid fails to prevent Biswas from being killed by Kabir, leading to his suspension. Khalid tracks down Kabir through a previous mission, where he learns that six months ago, Kabir was on a covert operation to find a government hard drive with secret codes and was targeting Illyasi's known associates. Khalid also learns that Kabir faked a relationship with a dancer named Naina Sahni in Italy in order for her to spy on Firoze Contractor, Illyasi's manager. Naina, who agreed terms to act as a spy for Kabir on the condition that her daughter Ruhi be provided for, was ultimately killed by Firoze, shortly after Kabir deduced that Firoze was in fact a disguised Illyasi, having undergone plastic surgery. Kabir has since faked betrayal to catch Illyasi's moles and agents, the truth only known to Aditi; this is why he killed Naidu, Shroff and Biswas. Kabir and Khalid agree to work with each other, but Kabir's hideout is attacked; and the duo flee to Kerala where they attend Aditi's wedding and recover a hard drive with the codes. Kabir hands the drive to Khalid for safekeeping.

While celebrating the mission's success on a houseboat, Khalid poisons Kabir's drink with TTX, revealing, in a shocking twist, that he is in fact, Saurabh. In a flashback, upon learning Saurabh's true colors, a fight between Khalid and Saurabh ensued. In the midst, Illyasi shot Khalid in the back multiple times before being stabbed by Saurabh, killing him. Saurabh informed Illyasi of his troubles regarding the plan and Illyasi, in turn, brought Saurabh to Dr. Mallika Singhal, a renowned plastic surgeon, to change his identity to Khalid so Kabir wouldn't know the truth; Mallika changed Saurabh's vocal cords and adjusted his face, making Saurabh's scars alone visible to give the impression of being an injured Khalid. After Saurabh reveals his true identity to Kabir, he throws a weakened Kabir into the river. In the Arctic Circle, Saurabh returns to Illyasi who is located on an icebreaker ship. Kabir arrives in a parachute onto the ship, and kills Illyasi's men. Scared, Kabir confronts Saurabh for his betrayal and reveals to him that he knew his true identity all along, after having seen him shoot perfectly from his right side, which Khalid couldn't due to his eye defect, and drinking alcohol, something Khalid abstained from owing to his religious beliefs. Aditi had provided Kabir with an antidote for the poison after seeing "Khalid" visit office despite suspension and noticing a sample of TTX missing and inserted a GPS tracker in the drive, when handing it over to Saurabh for safekeeping.

Saurabh kills Illyasi and escapes to a derelict church, while being chased by Kabir. A fight occurs and Kabir walks out after killing Saurabh by getting him crushed under the falling church dome, destroying his face once again, as Kabir implores he doesn't want a traitor like Saurabh to die with a martyred Khalid's face.

Khalid is posthumously honoured for his sacrifice, while his mother Nafeesa receives an award from the Prime Minister on his behalf. Kabir later meets up with Luthra, who is revealed to be aware of his defection; the former informs the latter he is better off working outside the system since everybody seems to have a price for him. Later, Kabir and Roohi surf together at Bondi Beach in Sydney, fulfilling Naina's wish of surfing with her.

Cast

* Hrithik Roshan as Major Kabir Dhaliwal, a RAW agent; Ruhi's foster father
* Tiger Shroff in a dual role as
** Captain Khalid Rahmani, a RAW agent and Kabir's teammate
*** Ayaan Zubair Rahmani as young Khalid in a flashback
** Captain Saurabh, a RAW agent (after plastic surgery)
*** Yash Raaj Singh as the real Captain Saurabh.
* Vaani Kapoor as Naina Sahani, Kabir's girlfriend and Ruhi's mother
* Ashutosh Rana as Colonel Sunil Luthra
* Anupriya Goenka as Captain Aditi Nahta, Kabir's teammate
* Mashhoor Amrohi as Firoze Contractor, in reality disguised terrorist Rizwan Ilyasi
** Sanjeev Vatsa as the real Rizwan Ilyasi
*** Rishabh Shukla as the voice of the real Rizwan Ilyasi
* Dipannita Sharma as Dr. Mallika Singhal, plastic surgeon in Zürich
* Soni Razdan as Nafeesa Rahmani, Khalid's mother and Abdul’s wife
* Arif Zakaria as Dr. Utpal Biswas, Portugal Space official, formerly of the ISRO
* Mohit Chauhan as V. K. Naidu, a retired RAW agent
* Swaroopa Ghosh as Defence Minister Sherna Patel
* Dishita Sehgal as Ruhi Sahani, Naina's daughter and Kabir's adopted daughter
* Imran Ahamed as Saini, a RAW agent
* Jesse Lever as Captain Muthu, Kabir's teammate
* Amit Gaur as Lieutenant colonel Jimmy Shroff, Para SF
* Ravi Awana as Basheer Hassib, an ISIS terrorist
** Manoj Pandey as the voice of Basheer
* Anil Khopkar as Prime Minister
* Bhuvnesh Mann as Ship Helmsman

* Jitendra Bamgude as Rana, a RAW agent

Production

Development

On Yash Chopra's birth anniversary and following the success of ''Ek Tha Tiger'' (2012), Yash Raj Films announced a new action film starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. Vaani Kapoor was finalised to play the female lead. Two international action choreographers from Hollywood and South Korea were employed to design action sequences.

The climax scene of the film was shot on the Arctic Circle; the first Indian film to do so. Siddharth Anand, the director of the film stated, "We want to push the benchmark of action movies that are made in our country. So, we are bringing two of the biggest action choreographers together to design some of the most outlandish and visually-spectacular sequences. On one hand, we have Andy R Armstrong from Hollywood and on the other, we have Mr SeaYoung Oh, who is an outstanding martial arts action choreographer from South Korea."

Filming

Principal photography began in the second week of September 2018. The film also has a dance off between the two stars in the song "Jai Jai Shivshankar". The film schedule was wrapped up in the beginning of March 2019. The film was shot in multiple exotic locations across Delhi, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Portugal, Italy (Amalfi, Capri, Positano, Matera), Finland, Sweden, Georgia and Australia. The bike chase sequence between the two stars was filmed in Portugal. The car chase sequence which was the climax of the film was shot at the Arctic Circle.

Music

The music of the film is composed by Vishal–Shekhar, while lyrics are written by Kumaar in his first formal collaboration with Yash Raj Films. All themes are composed by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara, who replaced director Siddharth Anand's frequent collaborators Salim-Sulaiman.

Release

A teaser for the film was displayed through roadblock advertising on the Star India network, sparking speculations that this was due to Roshan's and Shroff's recent satellite deals and associations with the television network. However, it was later revealed that the network and Yash Raj Films had struck a longterm deal, with earlier YRF titles also slowly finding their way to the network.

The film was released on 2 October 2019, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti.

Reception

Box office

''War'' opened with collection of 53.35 crore on its first day. It was the highest opening day collection for a Hindi film. On the second day it collected 24.35 crore, On the third day it collected 22.45 crore, taking its total collection to 100.15 crore. ''War'' has already created six new records as the film reaches to 100 crore mark at the box-office. The film entered the 100 Crore Club in three days of its release. The extended opening weekend collection of the film at 166.25 crore is the highest opening weekend collection for any 2019 Bollywood film. The film by crossing 200 crore in its opening week has become the fastest Bollywood film of 2019 to achieve the feat.

With a gross of 318.01 crore from India and 157.61 crore from overseas, the film grossed 475.62 crore worldwide. It is the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019.

Critical response

''War'' received mostly positive reviews from critics; on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 71% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10.

Among positive reviews, Anupama Chopra said "War is a popcorn entertainer and you can't ask too many questions but if you're willing to suspend disbelief, the twists and turns exert a solid grip." A writer for ''Bollywood Hungama'' gave the film four stars out of five, and said "''War'' is an action entertainer which has style as well as enough twists and turns to keep the viewers engrossed. At the box office, the extended weekend, dazzling action, stunning international locales and stylish execution will ensure mammoth footfalls for the film". Taran Adarsh gave it four stars out of five and called the film " capist cinema at its best". Komal Nahta of ''Film Information'' opined, "The film could prove to be the starting of a new franchise for the Yash Raj Films banner". Writing for ''India TV'', Sonal gave the film three and a half stars out of five, writing, "Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff of Abbas Mustan kinda twists, turns, characters, situations, logic, gravity, physics, chemistry, and some Ekta Kapoor-esque tricks all tossed together to make a visually spectacular concoction". Rajeev Masand of News18 gave the film two and a half out of five stars and said, "Both Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff fully commit to the action, bringing swag to the big stylish sequences and a visceral energy to the one-on-one punch-ups in the movie."

''The Times of India'' rated it three stars out of five and felt the film had "lot of style, stunts and show, but lacking a solid storyline". ''India Today'' rated it two and a half stars out of five and wrote, "''War'' is a crowd-puller, but it isn't meant to further the cause of cinema". ''Daily News and Analysis'' gave three stars out of five and wrote, "''War'' seems more like a Hrithik Roshan and YRF come back than anything else". Writing for ''The Indian Express'', Shubhra Gupta granted the film two stars out of five, stating, "The chief trouble with ''War'' is that all the space is divvied up between Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff, that the poor baddies don't really get a chance". Writing for ''Firstpost'', Anna M. M. Vetticad gave two stars out of five, opining that the film "could have been a suspenseful, eyecatching, entertaining ride. But for its politics... tis a painfully condescending ode to Muslim loyalty to our vatan, an ode that is particularly cynical and offensive". Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film one and a half stars out of five and stated, "Powered by two loose-limbed and resolutely stone-faced male leads, Hrithik and Tiger, ''War'' is all style and no substance".

Accolades

Sequel

At the launch of ''War'', Anand confirmed that he was working on the script of its sequel and had plans to convert the film into a franchise, depending on the audience response to the film.

A sequel titled ''War 2'' directed by Ayan Mukerji, is scheduled to release on 14 August 2025.

See also

* Audi R8 and RISAT-2, spy gadgets featured in the film

Notes

References

External links

*
*
*
*

{{Siddharth Anand

2019 films
2010s Hindi-language films
2019 action thriller films
2010s chase films
2010s spy action films
Indian action thriller films
Indian chase films
Films about the Research and Analysis Wing
Yash Raj Films films
Films set in Mumbai
Films shot in Mumbai
Films shot in Italy
Films shot in Portugal
Films shot in Switzerland
Films directed by Siddharth Anand
4DX films
Films set in Delhi
Films set in Morocco
Films set in Kerala
Films set in Lisbon
Films set in Sydney
Films set in the Arctic
Films shot in Delhi
Films shot in Uttarakhand
Films shot in Kerala
Films shot in Lisbon
Films shot in Sydney
Films shot in Australia
Films shot in Sweden
Films shot in Finland
Films shot in the Arctic
Indian spy thriller films
Indian spy action films
Indian Army in films
Films set in Iraq
Films set in Italy
Works about the Taliban
Films set in Lombardy
Films shot in Lombardy
Films set in Syria
Works about the Syrian civil war
Films about Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Films set in Zurich
Films set in Malta
Films shot in Matera
Cultural depictions of prime ministers of India
Films set on ships
Films shot in Zurich
Films set in 2017
Films set in 2019
Films about jihadism
Iraq War films
Films shot in Vila Nova de Gaia
Films shot in Campania
Films set in the Amalfi Coast
Films shot in Georgia (country)
Films set in Uttarakhand
Films set in Capri, Campania
D-Box motion-enhanced films
Hindi-language action thriller films