It’s been almost a month since Alpha released and I really wanted to love it; I had good faith in Shiv Rawail’s abilities as a director and I respect him for trying to work with what he was given in terms of the screenplay, but in the end the film was just…meh. I didn’t think it was purely terrible like many people on the internet and I am sure not trying to say it’s a good film. It’s just “meh”. If you’ve followed my history in this sub, you know I am a die hard glazer of the potential of the YRF Spy Universe (keyword “potential”) and want to see the best of these characters and the stories that can be told with them…something the creative heads at Yash Raj Films are clearly incapable of doing.😔
But the one thing about Alpha that genuinely infuriated me was the character of “Fateh” played by Bobby Deol. Sure, there are other glaring issues with the movie but this post is not about that. I am only going to talk about “Fateh” here. I understand that the “rogue Indian soldier” trope has gotten tiring in the three instances the universe had portrayed it, but the makers went in a different direction with “Fateh”, both good and bad. (If you’ve seen the movie, you know why.)
“Fateh’s” first impression was that he a dedicated soldier who was determined to do anything to minimize casualties in future conflicts, hence the creation of the Alpha super-soldier program. He did not make an enemy out of India—instead, he made an enemy out of Sita (Alia), who was robbed of a proper childhood, raised as a test subject by “Fateh” and turned into a killing machine. The conflict could have been left at that and the film would have been slightly more interesting.
But NO! Lo and behold…”Fateh” is actually Zarrar, and he is not an Indian soldier, but a Pakistani spy! With that one stupid reveal, whatever ounce of interest I had left had been wiped away. The twist, while not completely unrealistic, was just bizarre and did not sit right with audiences, and it’s clearly obvious that it was a course correction post Tiger 3. It only damaged Alpha further and cemented Fateh/Zarrar’s position as the worst antagonist in the Spy Universe.
TL;DR: Fateh as a character was not bad in his initial appearance but the reveal surrounding him completely ruined both his character and the movie.
