Vikram Vedha

A remake of the director duo’s 2017 Tamil film of the same name, it is inspired by the Indian folktale Vetala Panchavimshati and stars Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan as the titular anti-heroes. Radhika Apte, Rohit Saraf and Yogita Bihani play supporting roles. In the film, a police officer sets out to track down and kill a dreaded gangster.

The film, announced in March 2018, marks Khan and Roshan’s second collaboration, 20 years after having starred together in Na Tum Jaano Na Hum (2002). Production began in October 2021 and wrapped in June 2022, taking place mostly in Abu Dhabi and Lucknow. The film has music by Sam C. S. and Vishal–Shekhar, and cinematography by P. S. Vinod

Vikram Vedha was theatrically released worldwide on 30 September 2022 and received positive reviews from critics and audience, with praise directed towards the direction, cinematography, screenplay, background score and the performances (particularly Khan and Roshan), but underperformed at the box office. At the 68th Filmfare Awards, it received eight nominations, including Best Actor (Roshan), and won Best Action.

Vedha Betal is a dreaded gangster from Kanpur who understands the nuance in between. Vikram’s best friend SSP Abbas leads an encounter unit in the STF, which is formed to eliminate Vedha. In one encounter, the squad kills some of Vedha’s henchmen, framing an unarmed criminal killed by Vikram to avoid further inquiry. As the unit plans another encounter, Vedha enters the police station and voluntarily surrenders. When Vikram interrogates Vedha, he offers to narrate a story to him. The first act relates about Vedha becoming a dreaded gangster, who warns his younger brother Shatak, a mathematical genius, to stay away from crime, but Shatak is forced by a rival gangster, Babloo to carry drugs. When Shatak and his friend Chanda are caught by the police, Shatak confesses and Babloo is arrested.

On his boss Shiv Prasad’s orders, Babloo assaults Shatak, leaving a permanent scar on his hand. Vedha asks Vikram if he should kill Babloo or Shiv Prasad. Vikram replies that Shiv Prasad was the real culprit, to which Vedha implies that he killed Shiv Prasad. Vedha’s lawyer, who turns out to be Vikram’s wife Priya, intervenes and bails him out. Vikram realises that the unarmed criminal framed by them for avoiding inquiry was actually Shatak, based on the mark in his hand. Worried that Vedha might try to kill Abbas, Vikram rushes to save Abbas, but finds him and Chanda shot dead. The IG dismisses it as a botched encounter. Priya refuses to divulge Vedha’s whereabouts to Vikram. Enraged by this, Vikram raids Vedha’s tenements and manages to capture him. Vedha requests Vikram to listen to another story.

The second act relates with Shatak now grown-up, offering to launder Vedha’s income by investing it in shares. Vedha’s boss Parshuram Pandey invests ₹1 crore (US$130,000) in this venture. However, Chanda is supposedly kidnapped and the money is missing. Chanda returns and reveals that she stole the money to start a new life, but came back because she loves Shatak. Vedha returns the money to Pandey, who orders him to kill Chanda. Vedha asks Vikram if he should respect Pandey and carry out the order or disobey him and support Shatak and Chanda, thus inciting a gang war. Vikram replies that he should support Shatak to which Vedha agrees. Realizing Shatak’s innocence causes Vikram to stumble momentarily, at which point Vedha attacks and subdues him, telling him to investigate Shatak’s and Abbas’s deaths.

Vikram begins his investigation with Abbas’s informant, who led them to Shatak’s hideout, but finds that the informant has been killed. He and his unit tries to find the killer. Vikram takes a moment to recollect when he finds the leader of the Mumbai Gang from Vedha’s story. He apprehends and fights him only for the gang leader to almost kill Vikram before getting shot and killed by his unit member Deepak. Vikram searches his room, but finds a cigar where he finds that the cigarette is filled with marijuana instead of tobacco. Vikram deduces that Babloo is behind the encounter and informs Vedha at his restaurant, who brings Babloo to an abandoned factory. Vikram arrives and meets Vedha, who tells the third and final act to Vikram. Vedha had sent Shatak and Chanda to Mumbai. He noticed that only his men, except Pandey’s are being targeted and eliminated by the cops.

On Babloo’s confession, Vedha tells that Abbas was bribed by Babloo to kill his men, where he asks Vikram if Abbas was right, since he became corrupt to pay for his son’s medical procedure. Vedha kills Babloo leaving Vikram frustrated on finding out who had killed Abbas. The IG and the unit arrive, who castigates Vikram for letting Vedha escape again. Vikram slowly realises that the entire unit had also been bribed by Babloo. IG reveals that Babloo paid them to kill Vedha and Chanda’s abduction was intended to lure Shatak out of Mumbai, which would lure Vedha out of hiding. However, a guilt-ridden Abbas had gone to save Chanda, but the unit had killed them both. As the unit prepares to kill Vikram, Vedha reappears and saves him. A gunfight ensues, and Vikram disables all his colleagues with Vedha’s help, but kills the IG. Vikram asks Vedha if he should let him go for saving his life or kill him since he is a criminal where a standoff ensues between Vikram and Vedha.