The war outside between the mainstream star cast espionage drama and the south heroics of the coolie are matched in voltage by the technological absurdities that Ayan Mukherjee delivers in War 2. To keep up the interest and to ensure that patriotism is not just a subcontinental challenge with an immediate neighbour, the story visits multiple countries, multiple scenarios and different cartels of evil
The espionage world of Yash Raj not only gets bigger but wilder. From Dhoom to War, the thin dividing line between the characteristics of good and evil is not only lost in the gloss of stardom but is so blurred that like in War, even here the chameleon colour fail to steady around the character. Rogue RAW agents and chest beating patriots are all dumped into undiscernible basket.
The war outside between the mainstream star cast espionage drama and the south heroics of the coolie are matched in voltage by the technological absurdities that Ayan Mukherjee delivers in War 2. To keep up the interest and to ensure that patriotism is not just a subcontinental challenge with an immediate neighbour, the story visits multiple countries, multiple scenarios and different cartels of evil.
Rogue RAW agent Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) is at large and is believed to have shot dead his own guru Colonel Luthra (Ashutosh Rana). It can never be so simple in Bollywood.Col Luthra’s daughter is Kavya Luthra (Kiara Advani) who is an achiever in her own right in the armed forces (read volunteer into RAW). The new hero Major Vikram "Raghu" Chelapathi (NTR Jr) enters the scene. The fanfare is proportionate to repute and thus huge space and effort to introduce a south star, to north mainstream and global espionage. Unlike earlier evils, like bad men dens from Chambali valleys to Shakaal technology to Mogambo, evil is larger than life and now after the likes of Kalki, is at that larger than life stage. It is a pinprick away from bursting like the angry young man fell on his face in the Toofan Jadugar era. Kaali a global evil enterprise of baddies across the world, more particularly Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Singapore and the middle east. As evil goes through a conducted tour through Davos, Islamabad, Paris, Shanghai, Myanmar and Columbo even a zealous tourist is going to feel travel weary. There is a shoot at will spree punctuating the narrative every few minutes. Like the Pathan trail, the War 2 trail also play Credibility Musical Chairs.
This three hour display of technology, rogue agents, over stretched superstars, underutilised logic, Aayan Mukherjee loses his own plot simply because a plot is not only too illogically but convoluted and often critically irritating. Starting from the Japanese ken jut su with the Yazuka family right to doing away with Gautham Gulati (K.C. Shankar) as the personification of evil, you wonder what is more evil, that portrayed or the portrayal itself.
The characters in the film reiterate pointing at one or the other but one or the other has been compromised. The film itself is compromised. Effectively, War 2 is like a developing country concentrating on wanting to take off but failing to do so due to its own weight. Box office figures nothwithstanding, cinematically War 2 does not deserve a Hrithik-NTR Jr clash. In fact, there is hardly any. Who is the better dancer? Moot question. Hrithik is the God of dance. NTR is a star dancer. Hrithik has his action thrilled moves. The camera lurks on NTR Jr’s face for the emotional moments. One gets a suspicious feeling that the script and Ayan are slanted towards NTR Jr. However, not all the King’s men can hide the Greek God.
High octane action demands a farewell to commonsense and a constant dig into your popcorn packet. Kiara Advani, oh yeah, she too is in the film. Even a two-piece bikini for lingering seconds does not make an impression. Not to the voyeurist, not to the fan, certainly not to the critic. The likes of Varun Badola, Ashutosh Rana, slip in and out with consummate ease and nothing more. War 2 more appropriately is weary too.
