Akira has a fast-moving and thoughtfully interwoven story. Akira is the story of the eponymous character (Sonakshi Sinha) who is forced at a very early age to learn to protect herself from the bad elements residing in our society. In a well shot sequence, her inspirational father (Atul Kulkarni) lets a very young Akira (Mishiekka Arora) choose martial arts over dance to make her strong enough to protect herself from goons.
This is sort of an un-highlighted turning point in the film. In defending herself from the bad guys, Akira lands herself in juvenile prison. Once she emerges, she and her mother are forced to move to Mumbai to her brother’s house, but she instead chooses to stay in a hostel.
The other part of the story involves a ganja-smoking ACP Rane (Anurag Kashyap) and his band of obedient officers. They spot a huge stash of money, and in their quest to keep it for themselves, end up killing a person. Then begin their unending efforts to keep all this a secret. Their own colleague, an honest policewoman Rabiya (Konkona Sen Sharma) is handling this investigation, which takes no time to get Akira involved in all this.
AR Murugadoss has focused all his attention in making Akira an outright entertainer. And in the process, he has chosen to overlook deeper implications that could have been pulled out of this story. He handles his action sequences well, but there’s no freshness here.
Akira is a good watch for those who don’t mind their films being littered with stereotypical drama, which gives you nothing to think about on your ride back home. Akira is an entertainer. It will surely manage to get you intrigued right from the start. But there’s too many theatrics to sit through here.
Rating: 6/10