Alpha Movie Review: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Alpha stars Alia Bhatt and Sharvari in YRF Spy Universe’s first female-led action thriller. Explosive action, strong performances, and Alia Bhatt’s commanding screen presence make Alpha a thrilling new chapter in the YRF Spy Universe. YRF delivers high-octane action, globe-trotting thrills, and a confident female-led spy adventure that expands its blockbuster universe.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Director: Shiv Rawail
Release: July 3, 2026
Language: Hindi
Cast: Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan (cameo)
The YRF Spy Universe has been around long enough to have its own DNA now. You know what you are signing up for — globe-hopping action, larger-than-life villains, slick production values, and a score that kicks in right when someone needs to look impossibly cool walking away from an explosion.
Alpha, the seventh entry in the franchise and the first to be led entirely by women, delivers most of that. What it also delivers, more impressively, is a lead performance that has no business being this good in what could easily have been a pure style exercise.
Alia Bhatt plays the Alpha — an assassin with a personal mission to dismantle her stepfather’s illegal soldier programme. Alongside her is Sharvari, playing a fellow operative whose path crosses and complicates her own.
Bobby Deol, who has found a genuine second career as a commanding screen villain, plays the antagonist with the kind of cold authority that makes every confrontation feel dangerous. Anil Kapoor brings his trademark gravitas to a pivotal supporting role.
And Hrithik Roshan appears as Kabir in what early viewers are calling one of the most whistle-worthy cameo moments the franchise has produced.
Alia Bhatt as an action star is not a gamble anymore — it is a fact.
She has clearly put in serious work for this role. The action sequences are physically demanding and technically impressive, trained by the same coach behind John Wick, and Alia moves through them with a confidence and specificity that sells every moment.
But what sets her performance apart from a typical action hero turn is the emotional undercurrent she maintains throughout. Alpha is not just a machine. She carries vulnerability and conviction in equal measure, and Alia never lets you forget the human being underneath the combat skills.
Sharvari matches her energy and more than holds her own. Early concerns that her role might be reduced to a secondary presence appear to be unfounded — she is a genuine equal to Alia in the story, and their dynamic gives the film an interesting tension that the franchise has not quite had before.
Bobby Deol continues to be one of the most exciting villain casting decisions Bollywood has made in years. His face-offs with Alia are among the film’s biggest highlights.
Director Shiv Rawail, making his feature debut, handles the action sequences with real confidence. The film reportedly balances emotional storytelling with high-octane set pieces without losing momentum, which is genuinely difficult to pull off across two-plus hours of runtime.
The Kashmir and Spain locations add the visual scale the franchise demands, and the background score has the propulsive energy that has become a YRF Spy Universe signature.
The criticism that has emerged from early screenings centres on two areas. Some early viewers felt Alia’s star power slightly overshadows Sharvari rather than creating a true equal partnership — though this appears to vary by viewer.
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The more consistent note is that the film, as an origin story, prioritises setup and spectacle over deeper character exploration. As a franchise entry designed to expand the universe and position its leads for future films, it ticks every box. As a standalone film with its own emotional resolution, it is somewhat less complete.
Hrithik Roshan’s cameo as Kabir has reportedly generated the loudest reactions in theatres, which will excite fans of the franchise and set up considerable anticipation for whatever YRF has planned next.
Alpha is a confident, well-made, and frequently thrilling addition to the Spy Universe. More importantly, it proves that a female-led action franchise in Bollywood is not just viable — it is genuinely exciting.
Alpha is now playing in cinemas.