Directed by Raj & DK, Indian streaming’s unrivaled masters of gangster dramas, Honey Bunny is the prequel to the 2023 mothership show Citadel. Executive-produced by the Russo brothers, the central track stars Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Mason and Nadia, the premier spies of a covert global agency called Citadel. Honey Bunny serves as Nadia’s origin story.
Like the American show, it is split between two parallel timelines: 1992 and 2000. The story set in the 90s starts in Bombay. Bunny (Varun Dhawan) works as a stuntman in Hindi films who also is the star-agent of a dubious, manipulative father figure he calls Baba (Kay Kay Menon). He ropes in Honey (Samantha Ruth Prabhu), a struggling actor, for a mission. Things go awry and before long, they are hurled into a series of events that lead them to Bucharest where they are expected to steal key tech called Armada.
In 2000, both Honey and Bunny—estranged since 1992—are living in hiding. Honey is in Nainital with her seven-year-old daughter Nadia. It is this young, hyper-alert, precocious girl, trained to get out of sticky situations and survive, who grows up to become Priyanka Chopra Joans’s Nadia Sinh.
Bunny, who thinks Honey died in the 1992 Bucharest catastrophe, finds out that she, in fact, is alive, and that he also has a daughter, and they are both in grave danger. As he searches for them, the various pieces of the complicated jigsaw puzzle begin to come together. It takes six episodes under an hour each to reach the end of the game that’s just as baffling as it’s dazzling.
Taking forward what she started with The Family Man’s second season, Samantha cements her invincibility as a true-blue action star in Honey Bunny. She is magnificent as an illegitimate royal forced to fend for herself who flits between languages (English, Hindi, and Telugu) as fluidly as she shoots guns, wields knives, and reduces people to pulp. Samantha is a stunning performer who weaponises her physicality to communicate decades worth of fury inside her.
The same holds true for Varun Dhawan. Who knew Bollywood’s beloved man-child could be such a smooth, charismatic action hero? Watching him go and match Samantha kick for kick and punch for punch is a visual feast. However, two pieces of wood have more chemistry than they do in the show. It’s not their fault though. Big on action and betrayal, Sita R Menon and Raj & DK’s script has no space romance.
The spy-thriller gains immensely from a dependable support cast. Shivankit Singh Parihar and Soham Majumdar are solid as Bunny’s reliable colleagues Chako and Ludo. But it’s Saqib Saleem as the laser-focused antagonist KD, who steals the show despite it being so crowded.
As the morally obscure mentor Guru/Baba/Vishwa, who brainwashes young orphans and radicalizes them into militancy, Kay Kay Menon could have run amok with the character but he isn’t given much room to play around. What we are left with is an agent gone rogue with not enough steam to truly blow up anything.
The same is the case with young Nadia played by Kashvi Majumdar. Considering we already know who she would go on to become, like Young Sheldon, the possibilities of carving a nuanced, fascinating character were endless. However, instead of diving into the depths of Nadia Sinh’s heart or head, the show gives us a child written by adults whose idea of a kid forced to grow up sooner than she should is treating her parents as equals. No calling them mum or dad. Only Honey Bunny.
But it’s Sikandar Kher and Simran Bagga who get the rawest deal. As Citadel agents, they are strictly cardboard characters. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t bother with them at all. The writing is regrettably lazy and as a result, their characters are entirely ineffective when not clogging the thriller and hampering its pace.
Though Honey Bunny is not as edgy or wildly entertaining as Raj & DK’s flagship shows Family Man and Farzi, the duo has a gala time recreating the dark and wicked 90s. The world building is delicious. Johan Heurlin Aidt’s framing and cinematography is gorgeous and production designer Meenal Agarwal’s attention to the minutest of detail is faultless.
Much like Sriram Raghavan and Vasan Bala, Raj & DK leverage their cinephilia beautifully, with hat-tips peppered throughout the show. A key chat revealing crucial information takes place on a computer between two agents called Albert Pinto and Breakdancer. Before important combats, Bunny and Chako argue over codenames Predator and Terminator. The cassette cover of 1980 blockbuster Shaan is used as an integral device.
Raj & DK’s love for good old Hindi cinema is so unmistakable that they use several popular tropes of the time as plot points. There are orphanages, shootouts at weddings, and royals fathering children with their service staff. Tech and songs are also used cleverly to mark time and accentuate mood.
Sapno Mein Milti Hai from Satya (1998) plays out during a kidnapping, a re-jigged version of Raat Baaqi from Namak Halaal (1982) during an escape, and Ye Kaali Kaali Aankhen from Baazigar (1993) at a roadside dhaba when Honey and Nadia are having a moment over a meal. VHS tapes, colas, cassatas, CDs, walkman, phone-booths, and era-specific bikes and automobiles aren’t used as mere props; they are intricately woven into the narrative.
The scale and the spirit of all action sequences is staggering, especially the car chases, the hand-to-hand combats, and the palatial blow-out showdown in the grand finale, in which Honey and Bunny kick butt in such perfect sync, it will remind you of the memorable scene from Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) in which Baahubali and Devsena fight off thugs together.
However, in spite of its style and substance, Honey Bunny is bogged down by its association with Citadel. Even though Raj & DK’s voice manages to push through the crevices and shine, the pressures of being part of a global franchise loom too large to ignore.
ALSO READ: Citadel review: Spy thriller starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richard Madden could be a game changer
