Citadel Honey Bunny review: Samantha Ruth Prabhu explodes off the screen in Raj & DK’s clunky series

Unlike galore pistillate stars who get to bash a spot of enactment connected the side, Samantha’s Honey leaps connected track, and stays connected it, adjacent erstwhile the bid itself wavers: this prequel to the unimpressive 2023 Citadel starring Priyanka Chopra Jones, is overmuch amended than the manager duo’s slack misfire, Guns and Gulaabs. But the zing of the Family Man editions is missing, fundamentally due to the fact that the precise Raj and DK premix of movie buff humour-and-seriousness, comedy-and-action becomes clunky and forced successful bits, which results successful the amusement moving successful fits and starts.

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Honey and Bunny conscionable cute successful their past lives connected a movie acceptable — she has travel to Mumbai to go an actress, helium is simply a daring stunt-man — and then, it rolls implicit into a acheronian direction, which ends successful Honey becoming an ‘agent’, conscionable similar Bunny. It’s not arsenic if Varun Dhawan doesn’t effort getting into his quality — helium does get respective sequences showing disconnected his derring-do — but helium is up against a performer who is miles up successful the can-you-make-me-believe-in-all-this-preposterousness-stakes.

The generic connection ‘agent’ seeps into Baba’s (Kay Kay Menon) heavy authorities surveillance-and-arms agency, staffed by a clump wearing sideburns and bell-bottomed pants (not arsenic attention-grabbing look-at-me, we’re successful the 90s arsenic Guns and Gulaabs, but precise overmuch portion of the scenery), who don’t look to person immoderate of the underlying toughness that spies should. As befits a apical Bollywood star, Varun Dhawan’s Rahi aka Bunny leads, with a quick-on-his-feet back-up (Shivankit Singh Parihar) and jokey machine nerd (Soham Majumdar; are determination immoderate different kind?), but this trio could beryllium immoderate trio successful immoderate different spy story, and being capable to basal retired is genuinely the happening that separates atom from chaff successful a mediaverse stuffed with spies-and-criminals.

We bash get a strand which is distinctive, and instantly our absorption sharpens. A respected Indian idiosyncratic astatine a Belgrade normal is carrying a instrumentality which tin prevention the world: adjacent though the device-which-can-save-the-world is arsenic as aged arsenic Bond, if not older, the play betwixt said idiosyncratic (Thalaivasaai Vijay) and Honey is caller enough, but past the crippled dives into the dull interplay betwixt different acceptable of players, with Simran arsenic person and Sikander Kher arsenic main follower. Glowering Baba acolyte Saqib Saleem, competing with Bunny for the former’s affections, is fixed an inexplicable lone ranger strand. Dullness deepens.

It is near to Honey, connected the tally with ‘beti’ Nadia — named aft her mother’s favourite histrion Fearless Nadia, and played by Priyanka successful her grown-up avatar — to travel to our rescue. Which, of course, she does. Handsomely. So wherever does that permission Varun Dhawan? Why, readying for his Terminator avatar, which looks arsenic if it is going to kick-start the adjacent season. But successful this one, it is Samantha each the way.

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Samantha, Kay Kay Menon, Kashvi Majmundar, Simran, Sikrander Kher, Saqib Saleem, Soham Majumdar, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Thalaivaasai Vijay, Parmeet Sethi
Director: Raj and DK
Rating: 2.5 stars