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Aiyaary ( or trickery) is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. Produced by Shital Bhatia, Dhaval Gada & Motion Picture Capital and distributed by Reliance Entertainment, Plan C Studios, Friday Filmworks and Pen India Limited. The film stars Sidharth Malhotra, Manoj Bajpayee, Rakul Preet Singh, Pooja Chopra, Adil Hussain, Kumud Mishra, Naseeruddin Shah, and Anupam Kher. Inspired by the Adarsh Housing society scam, the film's narrative centers around the relation between a colonel and his protege that gets affected when the latter becomes disillusioned upon overhearing a conversation and goes rogue with sensitive data related to his covert organization, prompting the colonel to race against time and hunt him down.
Initially rescheduled from 26 January to 9 February to yet another week, it was released on 16 February 2018 to mixed-negative reviws from critics and emerged as a Box-office bomb.
Colonel Abhay Singh, Jai's mentor, learns of this and decides to pursue Jai, while he himself is pursued secretly by Officer Brig. Srinivas, who reports his movements to Gurinder. After a meeting with Malik, who explains to him about the real culprit and a powerful arms dealer named Mukesh Kapoor, Abhay finds his car pursued and manages to escape, while the pursuers sent by Srinivas keep following the car. The DSD shifts their location to an undisclosed location, and Gurinder enlists the help of a journalist named Kamya and provides her with sensitive information that can expose the army's secrets. Abhay flies to London, and so does a disguised Jai, who is picked up by Sonia upon his arrival.
In London, Jai manages to frighten Gurinder into transferring all his money into Jai's account while Abhay meets Tariq, a middle-man for Intelligence agents, who arranges guns and tries to locate Jai and Sonia, eventually alerting Jai. A desperate Abhay meets Mukesh and tells him his agents have captured Gurinder. He makes a deal with him, telling him to kill Jai and Sonia in exchange for the information he possesses as it threatens both parties. While Jai is en route to meet an MI-6 agent to sell him the information, Mukesh's sniper tries to kill him. A few agents are killed, and Jai is wounded, but manages to escape. Abhay picks up Sonia and calls Jai from her phone, telling him to come to a spot. Jai arrives, but is repeatedly punched by Abhay, who then holds him at gunpoint while Jai justifies his actions and questions what the elder generation plans to leave for the present one.
Hearing this makes Abhay agree with him, who subsequently picks up a call from Mukesh, on Jai's behalf. He asks him to free Tariq in exchange for all the information Jai would personally deliver to him. Abhay heads back to India, disguised, where he follows Jai's instructions and meets Baburao, an old man who reveals about an army housing scam in Mumbai, involving Gurinder and the Defence Minister. Abhay records his statement and hands it over to Kamya, his ex-girlfriend, who decides to play it after listening to Baburao's words. Gurinder, rescued by Srinivas after capturing DSD agents, receives the same audio recording and shoots himself after listening to it.
The housing scam is exposed, due to which Srinivas is forced to free the captured DSD agents. The Indian Army and DSD's reputation is saved, while Jai goes to meet Mukesh. Right before entering the building, as he is being watched by Mukesh's agent, Jai decides not to hand over the information and disappears as a bus passes. Mukesh decides to let everything go, while Jai reunites with Abhay after 2 months.
It was banned by the Pakistan Central Board of Film Censors for portraying Pakistan in a negative light.
Alaka Sahani of Indian Express gave the film a rating of 2.5 stars out of 5 and said that "Even though the movie puts together an impressive ensemble cast comprising some of our best actors, it takes a lot of time to establish their characters. A veteran in Neeraj Pandey movies, Manoj Bajpayee carries the film on his shoulders." Bollywood Hungama gave the film a rating of 2 stars out of 5 and wrote "On the whole, AIYAARY misses the mark and is a huge letdown on account of its flawed script and the lengthy runtime. At the box office, it will be a disappointing fare." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV criticized the film, saying that, "Aiyaary, comatose and convoluted, is like a patient who's been wheeled in on a stretcher and declared dead on arrival. It never manages to get up on its feet and break into a saunter, let alone a sprint." and gave the film a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5. Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 1 star out of 5 and said that, "Aiyaary is sketchily-written and not compelling. It tests patience even if you are a fan of the genre."
Shrishti Negi of News 18 gave the film a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5 and said that, "Unlike Pandey's other films, there is a nonsense of flatness in Aiyaary. Apart from a few scenes, the movie seems to be randomly constructed and fails to evoke any thrill."
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