Citadel: Honey Bunny Review: It’s good. But then, it could have been a little more!

Picked up from the Citadel universe, the latest Raj and DK venture ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ adapts to local milieu and succeeds to a large extent. But the narrative keeps losing its grip in patches and hinders the progress

A project helmed by the celebrated duo – Raj & DK – is sure to stir up more anticipation. One can’t blame the viewers though. For the duo had redefined espionage-based Indian entertainment streaming with the hugely popular ‘The Family Man’. And having set a benchmark, every successive endeavor is likely to be measured against it.

Picked up from the Citadel universe, the latest Raj and DK venture ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ adapts to local milieu and succeeds to a large extent. But the narrative keeps losing its grip in patches and hinders the progress.

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Action is the forte and the lead stars – Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan – handle this aspect well. In fact, the combat in smaller spaces and the hand-to-hand engagements keep one glued to the screen.

The plot alters in timelines, primarily between 1992 in Bombay and 2000 in Nainital, with a fewer flashbacks used to etch out the lead characters’ background.

Bunny (Varun Dhawan) is a stunt double in Bollywood movies and leads a secret life as a spy for an agency under Viswa (Kay Kay Menon).

A flash back reveals how he is picked up by Viswa and turned into a fighting machine and a trained to be an agent. Honey (Samantha) is an artist struggling to find a footing in the movie industry and in a state of desperation accepts friend Bunny’s offer to be a decoy in an operation.

Things go wrong but what is a spy thriller if all goes well. Bunny gets close to Honey, and despite an apprehensive Viswa, trains her to be an agent. An operation then goes awry, misunderstandings crop up and the agents goes their own way.

Fast forward. Honey is leading what appears a peaceful life, but always prepared and looking over her shoulders, along with daughter Nadia, in Nainital. The action starts when a bunch of agents locate her and starts pursuing. Honey is on the run.

Alerted by a tip off that Honey along with his daughter, about whom is he is unaware so far, are in danger, Bunny rushes to be on their side. Let’s stop with the story for more would deprive the fun of watching the series on Amazon Prime.

Action sequences are good, camera is excellent, background score remains complimentary and locations are wonderful. However, characters could have been crafted a little better for their motives and actions lack conviction at times.

Conversations between characters could have been penned better for they do not venture beyond the mundane and clichéd. Secret operations and even the honey trap to steal a disk are unconvincing.

Samantha is driven in her character and does well in action scenes, but remains rather opaque in expressing emotions. Perhaps it was thought upon that spies and agents should be stoic.

Honey is worried about her daughter’s safety but that fails to come to the fore. Varun Dhawan deserves credit for his hard work in brightening the character of Bunny.

Comparisons indeed are unfair. But returning to ‘The Family Man’, the difference perhaps lies there. In it, Manoj Bajpayee just slips into being Srikanth Tiwari and blends it so well for the story that the character could actually be any one – one in the family, the next door neighbor or the man living across the street.

Not just acting, even the way plot developed, the characters, situations and solutions were more acceptable in it than in ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’.