Army

Rohit Guptaa's *Army* attempts to retrofit the revenge-thriller template with feminist undertones, but the execution proves far messier than its ambitious premise deserves. The film's central conceit—a grieving widow transforming into an avenging vigilante at the helm of a convict army—echoes the righteous fury of *Mardaani* or *Pink*, yet lacks their narrative discipline and thematic coherence. Arjun Singh's undercover mission feels perfunctory, almost a plot device to justify Geeta's transformation rather than a fully realized dramatic arc. The performances, while earnest, struggle against a screenplay that oscillates between intimate character moments and bombastic action sequences without earning the emotional weight needed to bridge them. Ishita Dutta carries the film's second half with intensity, but even her conviction can't overcome the tonal inconsistencies that undermine the story's moral complexity.

Where *Army* stumbles most critically is in its treatment of vigilantism as catharsis. The "ragtag convicts" subplot reduces complex characters to comic relief and disposable soldiers, and Naagraj emerges as a cartoonish antagonist who exists merely to be dismantled rather than to pose any genuine ideological threat. Guptaa's direction—competent but uninspired—borrows liberally from larger-scale actioners without developing a distinctive visual language. The climactic "explosion of justice" feels obligatory rather than earned, a spectacle masquerading as resolution. Co