What began as an investigation crime thriller in HIT: The First Case has now expanded into a full-blown action franchise with Nani leading the way in HIT: The Third Case. 

In the third installment of the HIT franchise, Nani steps up from producer to star as Arjun Sarkaar, a calculated but unhinged officer on the Homicide Intervention Team.

He’s investigating a series of murders across India that seem to share little connection beyond the methodical way they’re carried out.

Soon, he starts digging and travels across the country to uncover a twisted plot involving the dark web, which eventually leads him to an enormous blood-soaked action spectacle in the movie’s climax. 

If you walked into HIT: The Third Case expecting a tense, slow-burn police procedural in the vein of its predecessors, prepare for a seismic shift. What began as a grounded crime thriller has evolved into something that would make even John Wick raise an eyebrow at its violent excesses.

The film starts promisingly enough, with a more methodical first half that builds tension and even manages to weave in a romance that doesn’t feel forced.

Srinidhi Shetty has great screen chemistry with Nani, who continues to be a magnetic screen presence in just about everything. It’s refreshing to see the female characters given more substantive roles this time around, which was one of my biggest issues with HIT: The Second Case.

The mystery and investigation are engaging, and the first half rarely drags all the way through the interval before director Sailesh Kolanu plunges us into pure, unadulterated, over-the-top mass action in the second half. 

Arjun Sarkaar goes from a determined investigator to an invincible superhuman killing machine, his white jacket fully saturated with blood as he takes down scores of attackers like he’s Ram Charan defeating 100 men in Magadheera. 

It’s visceral, thrilling, and exciting action, but this descent into extreme violence comes at a cost: stakes.

The mystery that initially drives the plot becomes largely irrelevant. Our big villain is so one-dimensionally evil that he’s almost a cartoon, and the suspense totally dissolves as we watch Nani pick up random weapons like he’s in a video game or cut a guy in half like something out of the Terrifier movies.

The cameos and nods to the next installment in the franchise are exciting and entertaining like something out of the Avengers, but it is kind of funny when compared to the small-scale story that began this franchise.

I felt conflicted because I love insane, wild action with physics-defying fight scenes in movies like Kill, Monkey Man, or Salaar, and I love Nani’s more performance-driven movies like Hi, Nanna. But do I love then together?

The difference in tones between the first and second halves in HIT: The Third Case creates some odd tonal shifts at times and it made me worry a little that this franchise is leaving behind its crime thriller origins and speeding toward over-the-top YRF Spy Universe territory—not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when you have a lead actor with the versatility and talent of Nani, I hope that story doesn’t take too much of a backseat to spectacle in the future.