23 October,2026 10:54 PM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
Ayushmann Khurrana (Pic/X)
Udta Teer is ulta teer - an arrow in the opposite direction - of the Bollywood blockbuster, Dhurandhar (2025). In the sense that the hero is a Pakistani agent, having infiltrated the Indian security establishment, instead.
Whether or not the filmmakers will pull as much dough in/andar is another matter. The film is a political send-up of sorts.
The heart-thumping background score might feel inspired. The genre isn't the same, of course. Neither is the ambition (ideally). Evidently, the film is based on no true events or characters, as it were. Nobody can stake a claim otherwise.
You can tell, actor Ayushmann Khurrana has studiously bulked up. He sufficiently looks and feels the part. But the payback here has to be laughs, and laughs alone.
In that sense, circumstantially, the funniest character may well belong to Rahul Bose, who plays the conscientious boss of the Indian intelligence agency.
I say, circumstantially, because he gets to speak no lines. He's laid up in a hospital bed, purely paralysed, but for his big eyes, particularly pupils, that dangle like a pendulum, while he helplessly watches what's going on around him, privy to a secret that nobody knows.
I'm told, Rahul has performed this pantomime act on the Bombay stage before. He's unwittingly hilarious in this film.
An equally corny yet rib-tickling role is actor Mukul Dev's. Physically bloated in a way that I didn't know him to be - before he sadly, suddenly passed away in May, 2025 - Mukul plays a jehadi terrorist named Azhar with âAzer-baijan' for his signature score, every time he steps on the screen, often swiping women in niqabs on a dating app.
Son of Sardaar 2 (2025), also a crackpot comedy, was the last we watched Mukul onscreen. This is a fairer farewell. Having started out as the handsome hero, Mukul was equally blessed with such quick comic timing.
There's also the trustable, great Indian middleclass archetype, Brijendra Kala, as the honey-trapped Indian defence secretary. As it is, Brijendra has that naturally dead-pan face, so perfect for a full-on farce.
Between these three, and other sundries - the cook, the butler, soldier, and spy - you have a legit ensemble comedy, keeping you glued to their next bumbling move. This is an Indo-Pak parody of errors.
God knows, India-Pakistan have been the flavour of so many seasons in desi shows, films, social media, mainstream news, advertising, that the overdone premise itself was one of the reasons I had scant interest in the pic. We could all do with a wider palette for casual entertainment.
That said, it's actually the premise that the filmmakers have so wonderfully cracked that cracks you up, for the most part. Which is? That the Pak spy, having lost memory, believes he's the brave, patriotic Indian soldier he was planted to pose as!
They call what Ayushmann's character is going through as "Aamir Khan in Ghajini." Minor fact-check, since it's a pet peeve: Ghajini was Pradeep Rawat, it's Aamir as Sanjay Singhania, who loses memory, fighting the titular villain in that film!
A spy with amnesia is a tested trope in action thrillers - a slapstick spoof of the same feels novel alright, with a loaded twist after another.
Where could the plot go beyond that phenomenal premise? Several directions, obviously - so long as it doesn't stray an inch from a goofy gag-fest, all along. It doesn't, until it does!
This is proficient writer-director Akash K Kaushik's debut with a possibly big budget production - so I'm wondering, if too many appraisers/assessors got in to cook a Bollywood broth, eventually.
After a point, Udta Teer (Flying Arrow) heads to all kinds of unrelated spaces - religious number, patriotic song, etc., even introducing an unnecessary post-credit epilogue. Sure, there's an audience for everything. This ain't that film!
It felt as if they didn't trust the comedy long enough. By then, I'd had more than my fair share of laughs, though. So not exactly complaining - just felt Kunal Kemmu's Vibe (2026), in the same genre, was slightly better, but that comparison is a compliment too.
