Made In India:
The three installments of Citadel that have dropped so far, form a jigsaw puzzle; the pieces are independent but also connected.
The Citadel Universe, created by Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh and David Weil, backed by the production muscle of Anthony and Joe Russo, started with the American series, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden. The new Indian series is a prequel, the backstory of Chopra’s Nadia Sinh. Pay attention, and the Italian Citadel: Diana’s villain Ettore Zani appears briefly as a young man. None of the three stories had a proper finale, so that each arm of the franchise can have an endless number of sequels or prequels. Only low ratings or its unwieldy cleverness could stop this universe from expanding.
The Indian spinoff, Citadel: Honey Bunny was entrusted to Raj and DK, probably due to their reputation built with spy series The Family Man. Their frequent collaborator, Sita R. Menon developed it, and it is to the credit of the trio, that keeping with the topsy turvy, Mcguffin-laden structure of the original intact, they have created a mostly coherent six-part show, that pauses for romance, emotions, family, and a dash of much-needed humour.
Like the other two, this one too has a non-linear structure, and it is an effort to keep track of the back and forth timeline, but the characters are properly developed, with credible backgrounds. Since it is set in the past– in 1992 and 2000– the tech wizardry is not overwhelming. There are pagers and those bulky computers–the object that is coveted by two rival spy organisations is a disc, hidden in the cover of a movie video tape. The missing part, labelled Armada, needed to activate this gizmo that would enable a dangerous tracking system, is hidden for eight years without hitting obsolescence, because “the KGB sanctioned it, and they make things to last forever.”
Rahi, with the nickname Bunny (Varun Dhawan) is a film stuntman, but is also an agent of a secret organization, headed by a shadowy man codenamed Vishwa (Kay Kay Menon), who is after the world-controlling technology that Citadel, run in Mumbai by Zooni (Simran) wants to prevent from falling into his hands. It has been established in earlier franchises that Citadel was established to preserve world peace, but it is on the verge of destruction, with its agents killed or otherwise incapacitated. All this is just an excuse to hang the many action set pieces and chases that are the raison d’ etre of the show.
Vishwa is in the habit of picking up bright young boys from orphanages and training them to do whatever he asks. The young men, raised by him, call him and Baba and are devoted to him. The chink in his invincible set-up comes in the form of Honey (Samantha), a failed film actress with a royal past. Bunny recruits her as the classic ‘honeypot’ to steal the disc, and convinces Vishwa that she would be a useful addition to the organization. They all go to Belgrade to steal Armada, and Honey refuses to go against her conscience. The organization falls apart and all of them scatter.
Honey is unable to tell Bunny, who loves her, that she was pregnant, and eight years later, she is living a normal life with her cute and precocious daughter, Nadia (Kashvi Majmundar), named after the movie icon Fearless Nadia (nice touch), when her past catches up with her. She has to go on the run with the kid. Bunny’s pals, secretly keeping an eye on Honey, inform him that she is in danger, and he discovers that he also has a daughter.
Honey is pursued by Vishwa’s men, Citadel agents as well as Bunny, who wants to protect her. As she escapes from one tight scrape to another, the pace of the series picks up and never lets go. After all escape routes are jammed, Honey seeks refuge in her family home in South India, and it actually hurts to see the heritage palace and its beautiful artefacts destroyed.
The action scenes have a raw quality to them without use of CGI, the hand to hand fights are slickly choreographed. The cars and weaponry also have a retro look to them.
Varun Dhawan seems to be intent on changing his image to that of action hero, currently more in vogue than comedy-romance, and he is comfortable in his skin. Samantha has the feline body language and also a wide-eyed softness that allows her to be caring towards an older scientist (Thalaivasal Vijay) she is stalking undercover, maternal towards the child and fierce in the action scenes. Kay Kay Menon is smoothly menacing as Baba. Actors like Sikandar Kher, Saqib Saleem, Sohum Majumdar, Shivakit Parihar adequately play supporting parts. Kashvi Majmundar is endearing as the “brave and fearless” little girl, who takes all the strange goings on with a worldly wise air, and tells her father “I don’t do hugs.”
In the end, it doesn’t even matter what that titular Citadel is, and what the agency and its enemies are up to. Raj and DK turn this one into a love story, and while the breathless bedlam (expertly shot and edited) is the prime focus, they make one care about Honey and Bunny and whether they will have a Bollywood-style reunion.
(This piece first appeared in scroll.in)
