There are certain clear ‘fundas’ for an action extravaganza. All action dramas need a strong Emotional Quotient to connect, otherwise the all fist-and-fury stuff never works even globally, and certainly not in India.
In the YRF Spy Universe, which began with the not-too-unrealistic Ek Tha Tiger 13 years ago, we saw these ‘norms’ adhered to faithfully (YRF’s entire Dhoom franchise that was an action caper series fulfilled these needs as well). The canon went well with Tiger Zinda Hai, War and Pathaan and to a decent degree with Tiger 3.
But this time, the credo seems to be “Let’s cash in on another film, which was the highest grosser of 2019, story be damned!” The story is puerile, I would even say non-existent, in the ‘substance’ sense of the term.
Believe it or nuts, it actually starts in the second half of the film where we get this prolonged wannabe-emotional saga of two childhood buddies, Kabir and Raghu, who are orphans. I wouldn’t blame you if you thought for at least 10 minutes that post-interval they were projecting a different film!
ADVERTISEMENT
The two kids go through an emotional rollercoaster when an army officer, Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) decides to enlist these wayward orphans into the armed forces and make men out of them. As Raghu and Kabir are inseparable and Raghu has kind of nurtured the weaker Kabir, he is incensed when only Kabir is chosen to be trained as a soldier, based on his temperamental qualities, of course!
Raghu tries to wean Kabir away from the Army, but now the latter has seen a purpose in life. A furious Raghu chastises him and moves away—to a life of crime!!!
The film begins with Kabir, the ace agent of R&AW having turned mercenary. He can tame wolves in an instant, and kill ruthlessly. For the latter ‘gift’ he is approached by a cartel named ‘Kali’ (a laughably innocuous name for a syndicate comprising of devilish individuals from India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka!!!) who have a nefarious agenda against India and R&AW! The cartel comprises a woman from Bangladesh, who wears a teeka on her forehead (Madhuri Bhatia of Pardes and Animal fame)!!
Kabir is ordered to shoot his mentor-turned-boss (and now R&AW chief) Luthra as proof that he will work faithfully for them. Kabir does the needful, and a video is sent to our intelligence forces! All this makes Luthra’s much-decorated daughter Kavya determined to annihilate Kabir. And do you know what? We are told that Kabir and Kavya had pledged love 15 years earlier!
Now the new R&AW chief, a wishy-washy character named Vikrant (Anil Kapoor) also wants Kabir out of the way. The department knows that Kabir is a tough nut, and the only one who can get to him (and get him) is the ruthless and unconventional agent Vikram (NTR Jr.), who is adept at seemingly impossible rescue missions.
And now, weirder things begin to happen! Naina has a daughter, Ruhi (Dishita Sehgal) who is a teenager now and is abroad. Kabir goes after her even as his enemies (headed by Vikram and Kavya) go after him. A train-and-car chase confrontation follows. Vikram rescues Ruhi from death and Kabir—whaddyaknow again!—takes her to India in the safe haven of a woman (Soni Razdan) who was mother to Kabir’s deputy-cum-fan, Khalid (Tiger Shroff in War)!
Meanwhile, Kabir meets up Vikram and they find they can work together against Kali! But soon Kabir comes to realize that Vikram isn’t all that seedha-saadha! And at interval point, Vikram tells Kabir that he is Raghu.
The second half continues on this illogical track and many more contrivances crop up in the “script” before things go Kabir’s way and there is an icy (as in location!) climax (a la the earlier film) between the two ex-friends. Needless to say, Kabir and Naina patch up. After the end credit-titles, producer-‘story’ writer Aditya Chopra uses the last three minutes (of 173!!!) to employ the ‘lucky offices’ of Bobby Deol (as in Animal and Housefull 5) to introduce Alpha, the new movie in the Spy Universe comprising ladies! It seems Bobby will be around in it as well.
A yawn of a yarn if we see logic and sense, War 2 is a liability to the franchise—the first and hopefully the last. We were hearing about Tiger Vs. Pathaan and I wonder if this was the harebrained idea they had thought of that was transferred to this film!
Director Ayan Mukerji (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Brahmastra—Part 1: Shiva) this time has a blast following a silly script in which the bulk of the work is done by the cinematographer (Benjamin Jasper), VFX and DI (all from YRF’s im-house teams) and the action coordinators (Spiro Razatos, Franz Spilhaus, Anl Arasu, Oh Sea Young, Craig Macrae and Sunil Rodrigues) instead of by him! Sanchit Balhara’s and Ankit Balhara’s music score is loud as ordered and Pritam’s music a disappointment. The editing by Aarif Sheikh is almost comatose—for the film needed to be crisper by a good 30 minutes or more!
No performance stands out. Hrithik Roshan is mechanical rather than effective, as he was in his last two outings that commercially disappointed but were far superior—Vikram Vedha and Fighter. A miscast NTR Jr. tries to measure up, but someone in the team hasn’t let him outgrow RRR. Kiara Advani has nothing much to do. Anil Kapoor, K.C. Shankar (as Gulati), Varun Badola and Ashutosh Rana are actually wasted. Hearty Singh (as the young Raghu) and Manthn Darji (as the young Kabir) make a mark, especially the former.
Writers Chopra, Shridhar Raghavan (imagine the writer of the cult serial CID and masterpieces like Khakee and Bluffmaster! falling into this mire of a screenplay) and dialogues spinner Abbas Tyrewala (Munna Bhai MBBS, anyone?) do not bother about logic and even ape the South kind of fare, especially where the kids are involved. Otherwise, their script murders logic and sense more than the baddies’ killing sprees here! Yes, illogic does have a place in such phantasmagorias of action, but as I have always maintained, there has to be a kind of logic even in that paradoxical state! Remember the wild animals sequence in RRR that had the audiences cheering?
The rating includes a full one star for the technical team!
Rating: **1/2
Yash Raj Films’ WAR 2 Produced by: Aditya Chopra Directed by: Ayan Mukerji Written by: Aditya Chopra, Shridhar Raghavan & Abbas Tyrewala Music: Pritam Starring: Hrithik Roshan, NTR Jr., Kiara Advani, Anil Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana, Varun Badola, K.C. Shankar, Hearty Singh, Manthan Darji, Soni Razdan, Dishita Sehgal, Madhuri Bhatia, Sp. App.: Bobby Deol & others