Fighter review – India’s pizazz-free Top Gun weighed down by patriotic propaganda

Fresh off the megahit Pathaan, director Siddharth Anand is back with yet another star vehicle, this time pairing Indian superstars Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone on screen for the first time. Aiming to valorise the tribulations and triumphs of the Indian air force, Fighter inevitably invites comparisons to the Top Gun franchise. The parallel extends to more than mere visual similarities: these films are all made with the approval and support of the military in their countries.

While the recent Top Gun update Maverick coyly constructs a faceless, stateless enemy, Fighter goes full throttle into an India v Pakistan showdown. Considering the current state of Hindi cinema, such hyper-nationalistic storytelling is to be expected, but the film offers little in terms of action pizazz. CGI-ed to death, the much-hyped scenes of aerial combat are flat, lifeless and utterly forgettable. Sentimental speeches of patriotic allegiance weigh down the love story between Roshan’s cocky squadron leader Patty and Padukone’s fiery fighter pilot Minni. Out of uniform their characters become so much more human that one wishes Roshan and Padukone could have just starred in a propaganda-free romance instead.

The need to wrap jingoism and commercial thrills into one neat package also results in one ludicrous sequence after another. Racy musical interludes – item songs – are haphazardly inserted throughout; at one point, a flight mission awkwardly cuts to an out-of-place daydream in which the two scantily clad stars groove to a sizzling tune in some distant seaside resort. Even when the camera gazes in awe at aircraft shooting through the sky, it dutifully pauses to take in roadside billboards on which ads for house paint are prominently displayed. Patriotism sells, but product placement pays the bills, too.

• Fighter is out now in cinemas.