Review: Alpha — ★★☆☆☆

Alpha closed its run at roughly 58.6 crore net against a reported 250 crore budget — a recovery of under a quarter, and the clearest commercial failure of the summer. On a floor where money is the measure, that is not a footnote to the verdict; it is most of it.

The disappointment is sharper because the premise was sound. Putting a woman at the centre of the YRF Spy Universe was overdue, and Alia Bhatt is not the reason it did not land — trade conversation has consistently separated her performance from the film's reception. The failure reads as one of construction and positioning rather than casting.

The question now belongs to Yash Raj: whether a female-led chapter gets a second attempt with better material, or whether the universe quietly reverts to the formula that has been paying. The honest answer is that a 250 crore write-off rarely buys a second attempt, which is the part worth being annoyed about.