Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode review - a gritty spy thriller that takes Indian action up a notch

Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu star in prequel to the American show, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Kashvi Majmundar in Citadel: Honey Bunny. Photo: Prime Video

If you watch any Bollywood action film from the past two years, you'll notice a pattern. Big and brash action scenes, a dizzying use of speed ramp sequences overlaid with reverent slow-motion shots of the hero, and enough explosion that would put a Michael Bay film to shame.

Citadel: Honey Bunny, India's newest spy thriller, enters this milieu and reverses through that wreckage with relish. With its realistic fight scenes, gritty action shots and a storyline that's not implausible, it almost serves as a palate cleanser to what's been offered on the big screen in the recent past.

Perhaps it's because the show has top notch pedigree, as a spin-off of the American show Citadel, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden, and created by the Russo Brothers, who are best known for their Marvel films. Or perhaps it's the show's directors, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, collectively known as Raj & DK, who have won fans for their unconventional style of filmmaking.

It could also be Citadel: Honey Bunny's leads – Bollywood star Varun Dhawan in his first action hero role, and South Indian star Samantha Ruth Prabhu, who has proven she can throw a few mean punches in shows such as The Family Man, also directed by Raj & DK.

Whatever the recipe, all of these factors work beautifully in favour of Citadel: Honey Bunny, the third show in the ever-expanding Citadel "spyverse", which now also boasts an Italian spin-off.

Serving as an origin story for Chopra Jonas' character Nadia Sinh, the timeline for Citadel: Honey Bunny starts in the 1990s where we meet Dhawan's Bunny, a Bollywood stuntman. One day, he recruits his colleague Honey (Prabhu), a struggling actress, for a "simple acting job, but without the cameras". But things do not go as planned, and in the ensuing kerfuffle, Bunny's true identity as a spy is revealed.

Cut to a few years later where Honey is seen with her daughter, a sprightly seven-year-old Nadia, played by Dubai student Kashvi Majmundar. It's soon revealed that Honey and Nadia's lives are in danger. But who wants them dead? And where is Bunny? Through flashbacks and flashforwards, all is soon revealed through a story that's as much about relationships than the high-stakes world of espionage.

Despite their success with the aforementioned The Family Man – in which a seemingly ordinary government employee secretly hides his sometimes-deadly job as a spy – Raj & DK, with the help of writer Sita R Menon, have managed to craft something completely different with Citadel: Honey Bunny. Injecting it with their signature wit and smart, their spy drama, while not the most original premise, feels fresh and exciting in its scope.

The action scenes too are electrifying to watch, particularly one fight sequence featuring Prabhu and two actors in a moving car shot in the picturesque town of Nainital in north India.

Setting it in the 1990s also gives Raj & DK the opportunity to get creative, arming their spies with old-school skills including hand-to-hand combat, as opposed to high-tech guns and gizmos.

Both Prabhu and Dhawan more than bring their A-game, but a special mention has to be made of Majmundar, eight, who steals the show as young Nadia right from the opening scene. With that kind of maturity and confidence, playing a young girl who's seen way too much for her age, it's hard to believe this is her first acting role.

Citadel: Honey Bunny could still veer off course, but this is a promising start.

Citadel: Honey Bunny premieres globally on Thursday