Between Yash Raj Films’ War (2019) and the newly released War 2 came Pathaan, Tiger 3 and the retrospective creation of a ‘YRF Spy Universe’. The ambition to yoke together characters played by movie stars with separate fan bases inhabiting near-identical plotlines weighs heavily on the latest instalment.
Ayan Mukerji takes up the reins of the War sequel from Siddharth Anand. Mukerji wants to give an emotional undertow to a straight-up action thriller – a misfired idea that bloats the duration (173 minutes) and results in dull, talk-heavy scenes that go on forever.
The new movie, written by Shridhar Raghavan with dialogue by Abbas Tyrewala, sees Indian super-agent Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) being pursued by Vikram (Jr NTR), another Indian super-agent. In the previous movie, Kabir dropped off the grid in order to expose traitors within his unit. Kabir is now posing as a mercenary, trying to take down an international Spectre-like outfit.
Vikram is dispatched to bring Kabir to heel. Already, a husky dog has locked eyes with Kabir and fallen in love – all living creatures do. But Vikram proves more resilient to Kabir’s charms.
Kavya (Kiara Advani), the daughter of Kabir’s boss Luthra (Ashutosh Rana), pops up in a bikini, a song with Kabir and a few scenes to register a female presence in what is essentially a bromance. In some other universe, we might have read more into the Kabir-Vikram dynamic.
Perish the thought. Kabir’s appeal is pan-species. Like War, War 2 has scenes in which Kabir saunters into the frame and everybody – men, women, the furniture – gawk. Roshan is perfectly suited to play Kabir, whose arresting appearance and slo-mo cool are surely the worst possible covers for the agent’s activities.
War 2 has other goggle-eyed moments too, some of them possibly intentional. Vikram hitching a ride on a drone plane. Vikram – he is quite the daredevil – using the impact of an explosion to stage an escape. Jr NTR contributes ample cheesiness to the movie and justifies his addition to the franchise.
The action directors seemed to have worked the hardest, staging encounters on land and in the air between the well-matched heroes. Anil Kapoor enters the YRF Spy Universe as the spy chief Vikrant, but he is no match for the avuncular Luthra. Varun Badola plays the minister Sarang.
Bobby Deol pops up in one of several post-credits scenes that seem to go on forever. Deol will be part of the next instalment, Alpha, which stars Alia Bhatt and Sharvari. Will Alpha signal the beginning of a new direction for the franchise, one that doesn’t follow the path laid out by numerous Hollywood films? Is the question rhetorical?
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