Citadel - Honey Bunny - Sweet not Funny

Citadel - Honey Bunny

Spy/Drama 
6 Episodes Approx. 50 mins avg
Hindi/English

Prime Video

This Spy thriller belongs to the Amazon/MGM's ambitious Citadel Franchise (Produced by the Russo brothers). This India based version is written and directed by fan favourites Raj and DK.  Honey Bunny is a highly quality, stylised actioner, sans the soul.

The story moves quite rapidly between 1992 and 2000. Technically, this is the high-quality product we've come to expect from Raj and DK. Absolutely fantastic level of detailing in costume, styling, art/set design. Cinematography (plenty of low light work) as well as the action choreography is absolutely grade A. The music score is also good without being too loud (which seems to be the norm nowadays)

Varun Dhawan (Bunny / Raahi) does a very good job. I agree with many reviewers who say his best work is when he isn't doing his Dad's movies. He gets the emotions right, good in the wry humor scenes (few and far between) and looks the part  of a Stunt double who is also a closet spy. 

Samantha (Honey) looks fit and nimble, much like Family Man 2, excellent in her action sequences. Her dead pan dialogue (with absolutely zero modulation) and bland expressions will very quickly typecast her though. Kashvi Majumdar  as (Nadia, is that a connect to Citadel?), Honey's daughter is quite a motor mouth, but her scenes with Honey offer the show's fleeting emotional moments.

The support cast is ok.Kay Kay, Sikandar Kher, Saqeeb Saleem walk through parts  which they have done a zillion times. Simran could have got a longer role. 

Raj and DK's trademark single-take tracking shots in two action sequences are simply mind-blowing. Full Credit to VD and Samantha in performing their own action is most scenes, barring some far shots.

I appreciate that Raj and DK wanted to keep this crisp and short with 6 episodes. However, just like their previous work “Guns and Gulaabs” , it feels a little underdone, leaving very little time to connect with the characters. It ends up becoming a very "Terminator" style concept, when it could have been a little more. 

That is why Family Man and Farzi are so much better. Raj and DK (and their cowriters)  took a little longer to layout characters and allowed their relationships to develop, thereby bringing the humour and chemistry, which made the characters memorable.

Overall - it is a decent watch, purely as an action / series.