Story:
Citadel Honey Bunny revolves around Hanimandakini aka Honey (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) and Rahi Gambhir aka Bunny (Varun Dhawan) and follows two parallel timelines – one in 1992 and the other in the year 2000. Bunny works as a stuntman in Bollywood films by the day and moonlights as a secret agent for his Baba’s (Kay Kay Menon) agency. Honey is a struggling actress, trying to make ends meet in Mumbai. She takes up a one-time real-life acting assignment as a honeytrap to earn some quick bucks but gets sucked into Bunny’s world of secret agents, and ends up becoming one herself. After a mission to secure a surveillance tech called Armada goes awry in Belgrade, Honey is presumed dead. However, she survives along with her daughter Nadia (Kashvi Majmundar) and leads a quiet (but vigilant) life in Nainital.
Eight years later, Bunny springs back to action when Honey and Nadia’s lives are in danger, courtesy, some assassins who’re chasing them. Who are these hitmen and why are they after Honey and Nadia? What is Honey hiding? How is Bunny’s Baba (aka Guru/Vishwa) connected to all this? Will Bunny be able to save them? Who’s right and who’s wrong? The rest of the series attempts to answer these questions (on the periphery), with a lot of stylised action taking centre stage.
Review:
Helmed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, Citadel Honey Bunny is a spinoff of the OG American globetrotting spy series Citadel (2023) starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh and Richard Madden as Mason Kane. Set mostly in India, it serves as a prequel to the happenings of the 2023 series and traces the origin story of Nadia, and her parents played by Varun and Samantha. Raj & DK along with Sita R Menon try to conjure an interesting backstory for the protagonists but falter when it comes to the execution of a hit-and-miss screenplay. Throughout the six-episode long series, with each clocking in just under an hour, we see glimpses of Raj & DK’s signature style but those glimpses rarely realise their full potential.
The show begins well with Samantha taking the front seat and diving straight into action. The first two episodes are somewhat successful in building the intrigue with the backstories of Honey and Bunny but from the third episode onwards the screenplay starts getting a little lethargic. This continues till the last episode which is saved by an explosive (quite literally) and action-packed climax. However, the last 20-something minutes-long breathtaking climax isn’t quite enough to salvage a dwindling screenplay that can be described as mediocre at best. This is more because of the unusually high standards and expectations that Raj & DK have themselves set with their mastery in suspenseful storytelling in their previously brilliantly written and executed shows like The Family Man (both one and two), Farzi, as well as Guns and Gulaabs.
Despite having almost all the elements of a near-perfect spy story, somehow, there’s not enough tension in Citadel Honey Bunny to keep you waiting with bated breath to know what’s coming next. In fact, on several occasions, you can easily spot the upcoming twists and turns from miles away. There’s little that surprises in the series which could have gone down as a worthy addition to the repertoire of Raj & DK’s impressive work, especially in the OTT space. The actors try their best to elevate the lacklustre writing, and to some extent, they succeed too, but there’s only so much one can do to make up for the lack of enough meat in the plot which is, honestly, quite generic.
The series relies heavily on the action avatars of Varun and Samantha and they do not disappoint. It’s a treat to watch them wielding lethal weapons and go all-guns-blazing against the “bad men”. Samantha impresses with her stance and sincerity as Honey, especially in the close hand-to-hand combat scenes. She’s fierce and ruthless and never lets her guard down. She will stop at nothing when it comes to protecting her daughter even when the stakes are too high. While she’s brilliant in the action sequences, she falters a little in the scenes meant to be high on emotions. Varun on the other hand not only shines in the action set pieces but also manages to do comparatively better in the emotional sequences. Even though he doesn’t get as much of a layered character arc as that of Samantha, he manages to do complete justice to his part, portraying a range of sentiments – from being vulnerable to deadly – his transformation through the series seems quite organic and effortless.
Both Varun and Samantha get enough situations to perform stylised action in varied settings. Be it chase sequences in the middle of Mumbai streets or the narrow alleys of Nainital, coming to blows with enemies in a safe house or a secret agency base, or taking down rival agents in the streets and subways of Belgrade, the duo is poised, prepped and ready to kill with panache at the drop of a hat. They have better chemistry with the armaments they wield, rather than with each other. The concluding moments in the final episode stand out when Varun and Samantha go completely into the Mr and Mrs Smith mode while exchanging blows with their attackers, in long-drawn one-take tight-knit hand-to-hand combat scenes. This is where we see them getting their hands dirty with utmost sincerity, grit and agility. You do feel bad for seeing a heritage palace and its artifacts being blown to pieces, but only for a moment. You become too engrossed in appreciating the long one-take combat sequences, with your jaws dropped!
Child actor Kashvi Majmundar leaves quite an impression as young Nadia. Kay Kay Menon, however, seems reduced to playing a stereotypical character. He tries his best to elevate his half-baked Guru/Baba who has a weird way of testing the loyalty of his recruits by serving them burnt chicken and pitting one against the other, vying for his affection. Other than that, it seemed like a cakewalk for him. An actor of his mettle deserved a better-written role. Saqib Saleem clearly stands out amongst the rest of the supporting cast members. But that’s more because of the way he portrays his character, rather than the written material on paper. He brings his A-game being the disgruntled colleague-come-archenemy of Varun’s Rahi.
Sikandar Kher as Citadel agent Shaan doesn’t have much to do and Simran as Zooni – running the operations of Citadel in India is quite one-note. TVF’s Aspirants fame actor Shivankit Singh Parihar does quite well as Rahi’s friend and fellow agent Chacko. Seeing him coming to blows with enemies in a narrow, dingy corridor – taking them down one after the other was quite a pleasant surprise. Soham Majumdar as Ludo – another specs-wearing tech nerd, obsessed with gizmos and gadgets – does what is required of him in another stereotypical character.
To give credit where it’s due, the action choreography by Yannick Ben, Aejaz Gulab, and Dian Hristov in the series, particularly in the penultimate moments is the stuff action gold is made of. Aman Pant’s impressive background score infuses life into the goings on onscreen. Johan Heurlin Aidt’s cinematography is on point. Even though, the camerawork in some of the action scenes appears a bit shaky, it works well with the overall tonality and structure of the scenes.
Verdict:
Overall, Citadel Honey Boney is more binge-able than its OG 2023 American show with Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden. However, that’s comparing a potentially brilliant student with a dull classmate. Despite the high-octane and explosive action, the series is marred by mediocre writing and never rises to its full potential to give you an exhilarating, nail-biting spy thriller.
Citadel Honey Bunny
Watch on: Prime Video
Directors: Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK
Writers: Sita R Menon, Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK, Sumit Arora
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon, Saqib Saleem, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Soham Majumdar, Sikandar Kher, Simran
Rating: 2.5 stars
