Akira

About the film

Akira is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film co-written, produced and directed by A. R. Murugadoss. It is a remake of the 2011 Tamil-language film Mouna Guru, and features Sonakshi Sinha, Konkana Sen Sharma and Anurag Kashyap in the lead roles.

Principal photography began in March 2015, and the film was released worldwide on 2 September 2016. The soundtrack composed by Vishal–Shekhar, was released on 16 August 2016. The film received mixed reviews from critics with praise for the performances of the cast but criticism for the writing of the film.

Plot

Akira Sharma, a young girl, witnesses a group of men throwing acid on a woman's face. She helps the police catch one of the criminals and is therefore harassed by the accused, who slashes her face out of revenge, giving her a scar. Subsequently, her father enrolls her in a self-defense class. A couple of days later, she comes across the same men who had escaped earlier and tries to catch them. One of them tries to throw acid on her, but it ends up on his own face in the brawl. Akira is arrested, convicted, and sent to a remand home for the attack.

8 years later, Akira is released and later grows into a rebellious tough woman. When she starts going to college, her brother comes to pick her mother and her. And hence she moves from Jodhpur to Mumbai. She joins a college and begins living in a hostel, where she finds it difficult to adjust to normal life. The college is also dealing with a thieving student, as more and more electronics keep getting stolen. When a corrupt and drunk-on-power police officer, ACP Rane hits an elderly college professor with his car and then beats him up, the college students take out a massive protest. The protests turn violent, however Akira patiently waits to hand over their petition to the Commissioner.

A couple of days later, Rane goes to help a car crash victim but robs and kills him, when he finds loot in his trunk. His girlfriend, Maya, who is in the same college as Akira, secretly records his conversation about evidence disposal. Her bag with the camera is, however, stolen, and someone starts blackmailing Rane. Suspecting Maya, he brutally kills her. Despite his insistence, the case is handled by SP Rabiya, who suspects Maya's murder.

Music

The songs featured in the film were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar. The background score of the film was composed by John Stewart Eduri.

The song Kehkasha Tu Meri is a remake of the duo's Marathi song Harvali Pakhare from the 2012 film Balak-Palak, sung by Shekhar Ravjiani.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 33% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 5.60/10.

Anupama Chopra giving the film 2.5/5, praised the performances of Sinha, Kashyap and Sharma, but criticised the second half. She wrote that "Anurag [Kashyap] gives Rane just the right touches of menace and sleaze." The second half, however, "strikes so badly in this film that it almost completely negates the first half, which is effective."

Anna M.M. Vetticad, praised the acting but criticised the character development. For Sinha's character, she wrote, "Akira is the most poorly fleshed out character in the entire story...a woman who can fight as skillfully and strongly as any man. That is it. The workings of her mind, her motivations and her feelings, remain a mystery." She, however, praised Kashyap's portrayal of Rane, calling it the "best-written character" whose "drug-addled brain is never so clouded as to make him lose sight of his self-interest."

Key details