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First thing first: yes, our girl Alia Bhatt has a meaty role in the movie Heart of Stone which marks her international debut. In this racy action-thriller, she essays the role of a 22-year-old IT expert and master hacker from Pune who matches wit with Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot), but steers clear of gravity-defying stunts. Gadot, the Wonder Woman star, of course, doesn’t bat an eyelid while jumping off cliffs and diving from the sky. As she makes a thrilling transition from being a superhero and heist queen to a superspy, director Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders, Wild Rose) and writers (Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder) built a world where her amazing athleticism meets grand spectacle and technical wizardry.
At the heart of this thriller is ‘The Heart’ — the world’s most powerful AI that can keep track of a person’s online history and use that data to predict their future moves. The story plays up global apprehensions of AI falling in wrong hands and rendering humans helpless. Rachel — introduced early on in the movie as an undercover “baby IT agent” in MI6 — is a member of an elusive and mysterious group of elite spies known as the Charter that acts to protect The Heart to maintain world peace. But there are hurdles to cross first. Stone’s MI6 counterpart Parker (Jamie Dornan), a rogue agent, and Keya Dhawan (Bhatt) — are after The Heart.
As a typical spy thriller, Heart of Stone has enough twists, turns and double-crossing to keep the audience engrossed. The film opens in the gorgeous snow-covered mountains of Italy with a nearly 20-minute-long action set piece as Gadot parachutes off a cliff, rides a snow bike down the mountain, hangs from a cable car and fights the baddies — all for the success of the mission she has been entrusted with. She further zips, zaps and zooms across the globe from London, Lisbon to Senegal and Iceland as the clock ticks away with a sense of foreboding.
What stands out in this thriller are the moments dedicated to making connections between the characters, even though some of those connections are brutally cut short. Going beyond conventional heroism, the story delves into the heart of the prominent characters, especially Stone, Parker and Keya, while expressing their trauma, vulnerabilities, and despair. In a remarkable scene exhibiting the softer moments, both Keya and Rachel acknowledge to each other that they are left “broken” inside by the hardships of life. It’s a sisterhood that reflects in the scenes they are together.
Having said that, the audience rarely gets caught up in the film’s emotional sweep. Sometimes, even the drama and tension go missing. To be fair, an edge-of-the-seat thriller is hardly a novelty for an audience who have seen it all. Well, almost!
Yet, what makes Heart of Stone refreshing is that it has several key intelligent female characters at the narrative core. Heart’s another redeeming feature is the diversity of the cast that lends credibility to the globe-trotting characters.
The story is relevant as it delves into the world of data and technology, and highlights the need for balance between human instinct and algorithms. There is a strong possibility of a movie franchise as is the trend these days. Bhatt too has a card up her sleeve, which means that more meaty roles could be written for her in the successive instalments. Who knows she might even get to kick some butts.
Click for more updates and latest Hollywood News along with Bollywood and Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the World at The Indian Express.
