Underplayed Gems

AK vs AK (2020)

AK vs AK poster
Directed by
Vikramaditya Motwane
Genre
black comedy, thriller film
Country
India
Runtime
1h 49m
Rated
12
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 63 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A film director kidnaps the daughter of a movie star. He forces the star to search for her while his assistant films everything for his next project. The story blurs reality and fiction as the characters play exaggerated versions of themselves.

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What happens

AK vs AK is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language black comedy thriller film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and is the first release under his banner Andolan Films. Anurag Kashyap, the executive producer and dialogue writer, also stars alongside Anil Kapoor as the title characters with Harshvardhan Kapoor and debutante Yogita Bihani in pivotal roles. The story, written by Avinash Sampath, utilises a film-within-a-film narrative where the main actors play fictionalised versions of themselves. After a public feud between Kashyap, an eccentric film director, and Anil Kapoor, an ageing film star, the former kidnaps the latter's daughter (Sonam Kapoor Ahuja) and forces Kapoor to search for her while his assistant (Bihani) films them as part of his next project, with most of the film shown from the perspective of her camera. The idea for the film was conceived by Sampath in 2013, and development started after he sent it to Motwane. At first, the film's title was AK vs SK, with Shahid Kapoor playing himself in the latter role, but schedule conflicts caused the film to be shelved in 2016. The project was resurrected in late 2019 with Anil Kapoor in the role instead and a new script. Filming took place a couple of months later, and after an unconventional marketing campaign launched a few weeks before the film's release, AK vs AK debuted on Netflix as one of the service's original films on 24 December 2020, Kapoor's 64th birthday. It initially received positive reviews, with praise going to the film's novel structure, the two leads' performances, and its exploration of the film industry, though critics found the ending and its buildup underwhelming. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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