Vikramaditya Motwane’s AK vs AK – Anil Kapoor & Anurag Kashyap

Merry Christmas!

Bollywood has not one but two treats for you this Christmas, depending on what your fave genre is. Amazon released ‘Coolie No.1’ starring Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan and Netflix released ‘AK vs AK’ starring Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap.

AK vs AK is about “a brash film director [who] kidnaps the daughter of a well-known movie star. While the star is relentlessly searching for his daughter, the director/kidnapper films the desperate search in real-time for his next blockbuster movie. – NDTV

Shot in only 21 days, ‘AK vs AK’ is Bollywood’s first mockumentary and is directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. Originally, the film was titled ‘AK vs SK’ and was supposed to star Shahid Kapoor and not Anil Kapoor. Shahid backed out after a day of shooting in 2015 after the failure of ‘Shaandaar’ which was a pretty big deal back then for both Alia Bhatt and Shahid, if you remember.

“AK vs AK has an extremely, unique and gripping storyline and Netflix is the perfect platform for it because of their organic disposition to take creative leaps of faith and constantly push the envelope every single time.” – Vikramaditya Motwane

Vikramaditya Motwane is a good director, he has had very interesting projects which unfortunately have not really been huge hits at the box office. If you think about it, if the film released in theaters along with ‘Coolie No.1’, Varun’s masala brainless comedy film would have earned more than a thinking movie like ‘AK vs AK’. Vikramaditya has earlier directed ‘Bhavesh Joshi’ that starred Harshvardhan Kapoor, Anil’s son. It was a film that critics loved but failed miserably at the box office. Harsh also mentions this in the film when he asks Anurag to take him in his film as Motwane screwed him over.

You already know about the story of ‘AK vs AK’, but here’s a recap:

AK vs AK Trailer

What’s interesting about this film is how they decided to promote it by starting a fight between Anurag and Anil on Twitter ala Tom n Jerry style. They kept the same tension between them in interviews prior to the launch of the trailer and before the release of the film.

The film’s promotions released in the form of short videos on Netflix’s YouTube channel have to be the most interesting promos ever for a Hindi film release. Maybe it worked because of the actors in it, both known to be able to laugh at themselves and not take things to heart.

Making of AK vs AK

AK’s Bhidu!

Jackie Shroff came out to support his old buddy Anil Kapoor. Back in the day, they were the Ayan Mukherjee and Ranbir Kapoor jodi. No wait! That’s not it…They were the Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan best of friends…NoNoNo…What were they?

Well, they were two good actors who worked alongside each other in many films. In some of these films, Anil was the main lead while Jackie featured in the supporting cast. So the fact that Jackie came out to support Anil shows how close they are as friends. Guess the only way you can remain friends in Bollywood is if you are not jealous or envious of your friend’s success and career. By the way, Jackie is hilarious as always!

There’s an interesting House Swap video that featured Anil venturing in Anurag’s house and Anurag walking through Anil’s luxurious home. Anil is one of the few Bollywood actors to have his own bungalow. These days, most well-to-do actors can only afford an expensive apartment that they call fancy because in Mumbai space is limited. But hey, Anil worked hard to make a big and comfy house for his family!

Big K…

In a way, Anil has become like Amitabh Bachchan but the only difference is Big B only has his actor-son Abhishek while Anil has two actors in the house, Sonam and Harshvardhan. Both Anil and Amitabh started from nothing and became huge stars in the industry. Their kids, though, have not had such an easy run in Bollywood but they do have the luxury of not losing sleep or being worried as Big B and Anil were in the 90s when their films weren’t doing so well. Big B had to make a comeback to save his company, he was already bankrupted back then. Anil had to work to keep his family’s production house alive. He and Boney used to work together all the time. Speaking of working, both Anil and Amitabh are good at their job and have strong work ethic which is why they are still wanted by directors and producers.

Anil Kapoor as AK

‘AK vs AK’ is actually much better with Anil Kapoor in the lead. At 65, he has more experience and was able to pull off any scene in the film.  Compared to Harshvardhan, who was overdoing it in the film, Anil was composed and in character the whole time.

By the way, Harsh calls Anurag by his name and Anil as AK. It’s funny because Anurag is much more senior than him and yet, Harsh is privileged enough to address him by his name. He and Sonam did the same thing when they spoke about Rakesh Omprakash Mehra in a joint interview once, he addressed the director of his debut film as Mehra and not as Sir or Mr. That’s privilege right there! The way Harsh acted in his scenes is just like you would have thought he is behind the scenes. In fact, there was an article once at how he cornered Aamir Khan at the Kapoors Diwali party and kept talking about movies with him when all Aamir wanted to do was to enjoy himself at the party and get away from the movie talk. The way he talks when he is narrating the movie scenes to Anurag sounds like his aunty Maheep Kapoor might have babysat him when he was little! ?

Anil in that scene where he is forced to perform for the public, he dances so energetically that it’s almost as if he was infected with Ranveer Singh’s energy! Ranveer is in his 30s while Anil is in his 60s, let that sink in!

Anurag Kashyap as AK

Anurag Kashyap is mean and almost like a psycho in this film. The whole scenario is about him trying to make Anil act as he thinks that Anil’s acting so far in films has not been real. If you have seen the trailer, all the kidnapping is real and was an idea given to Anurag by his assistant as a way to seek revenge from Anil. His best scenes are the ones where he struggled to breath and looked for his inhaler because he is asthmatic, and then there’s that one scene where Anil got accidentally hit by a car and when Anurag caught up with him and came to know about the accident, all he asked his assistant is if she got the shot on tape!

AK vs AK…

‘AK vs AK’ has some interesting moments, and it shows you how passerby react to stars as if actors are not human and just objects with no life and no feelings. It’s funny how Anil’s character still stops and takes selfies with everyone asking while crazily searching for his daughter. He even shakes a few hands on the way. We wished the film was a bit shorter, though, because after some point it was dragging. Had it been shorter, it would have been interesting enough for a second watch. The ending is worth it, though…Don’t miss it!

Oh, and the fight at the beginning and how the media reports it is quite similar to the Shah Rukh and Salman fight that happened eons ago at Katrina’s birthday party. The next day of the fight, the media was already reporting who is taking whose side in the fight. Psst…Guess who was the first person to leak about the fight to a famous journalist?

‘AK vs AK’ is out already on Netflix. If you are interested in watching something new, this is it!

Take care for now. Enjoy the Christmas holidays!