Alpha Teaser Review: A Jewellery Ad Opening, A Nikita Hangover, and a Wolf That Forgot to Bite

After months of delays and a marketing build-up that promised Bollywood’s first true female-led spy spectacle, the Alpha teaser is finally here — and I really, really wanted to be blown away. Alia Bhatt headlining the YRF Spy Universe, Bobby Deol fresh off his Animal menace and Bandar brilliance. The ingredients were all there. The dish, unfortunately, arrived undercooked.

That Opening: Am I Watching a Spy Film or a Jewellery Commercial?

The teaser opens in a restaurant — Alia’s character celebrating her 18th birthday, with her “Baba” Bobby Deol presenting her a gift that kickstarts her first mission. On paper, an intriguing hook. On screen? The whole sequence is lit, framed and colour-graded like a premium jewellery advertisement. Soft golden glow, lingering close-ups, everything gleaming and gauzy. For a film whose entire identity is supposed to be grit and “attitude,” opening on what looks like a Tanishq commercial is a baffling tonal choice.

And here’s the bigger problem with that restaurant scene — we’ve seen it before, frame for frame, and better. Anyone who knows their Luc Besson will get instant déjà vu of the most famous sequence in La Femme Nikita (1990): Bob takes Nikita to an elegant restaurant for her “birthday,” hands her a gift-wrapped box, and inside it lies her first assassination assignment. Birthday in a restaurant, father figure, gift box, first mission — Alpha’s opening replays that exact beat sheet thirty-six years later, just with softer lighting. There’s no shame in borrowing from Besson; half of modern action cinema does. But when you lift a scene this iconic, you either have to subvert it or surpass it. The teaser does neither — it simply restages it, and invites a comparison it cannot win. Watch our video review here

Alia: Looking Great, Just Not Eighteen

Let’s address the elephant in the training room. Alia Bhatt looks terrific — committed, intense, in visibly fantastic shape. Her screen presence remains undeniable, and you can see the action prep that Bobby Deol himself has been praising in interviews. But the teaser asks us to buy her as a girl celebrating her 18th birthday, and that suspension of disbelief simply doesn’t happen. Alia is one of the most photographed faces in the country; no amount of soft lighting makes that birthday scene land. Either the de-ageing needed to be more convincing, or the script needed to not hinge its opening on a number. A simple “the day I came of age” voiceover would have done the job without inviting the comparison.

Bobby Deol: Where Did Abrar Go?

This one hurts to write, because Bobby Deol’s second innings — Aashram, Animal — has been one of Bollywood’s great comeback stories. But in this teaser, delivering the film’s centrepiece “wolves and sheep” philosophy, he comes across stiff and wooden. The lines land with a thud. There is a flatness to the delivery that makes the big “a wolf’s daughter can only be a wolf” moment feel like a table read, not a trailer-cut.

Part of the blame lies with the writing itself. Spy Universe teasers have historically given us at least one line you walk out repeating — Pathaan’s “bête ko haath lagaane se pehle…” energy, War’s swagger. Alpha’s teaser has nothing clap-worthy, nothing whistle-worthy, nothing you’d put in a YouTube short. For a franchise built on massy single-screen moments, that’s a glaring miss. The dialogues will hopefully have more bite in the full film, but the teaser’s sampling is forgettable.

The Action: Average Where It Needed to Be Astonishing

The combat sequences — hand-to-hand drills, kicks, punches, survival training — are competently shot but choreographically ordinary. Nothing here we haven’t seen in a dozen recent actioners. And that’s a real problem, because the bar for female-led action has moved. Ana de Armas in Ballerina showed exactly what this genre demands now — inventive, brutal, character-driven choreography where every fight tells you something about the fighter. That’s the standard Alpha invited comparison with by positioning itself as India’s first female spy tentpole. On this teaser’s evidence, it isn’t in the same weight class. “Alia throws a punch” is not a selling point in 2026; how she throws it is, and the teaser gives us nothing distinctive.

The Silver Linings

To be fair: this is a teaser, not the trailer. The VFX-heavy delays suggest the big set-pieces are being held back. Sharvari hasn’t even been revealed yet, Anil Kapoor’s Colonel Kaul connects this to the larger universe. The July 3 release leaves room for a trailer that course-corrects everything this teaser fumbled.

Final Word

I’m rooting for Alpha. A female-led entry succeeding in the Spy Universe would be genuinely good for the industry, and nobody doubts Alia’s ability to carry a film. Here’s hoping the finished product has sharper action, a meatier story, and becomes the super-duper hit YRF needs. But this teaser disappointed. A jewellery-ad opening, a borrowed Besson premise, a wooden Bobby, flat dialogue and average action — that’s not the first impression a franchise-launcher can afford.

Not impressed. Trailer, the ball is in your court.