Desi Talk

www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 22 ENTERTAINMENT August 22, 2025 War 2 Touches Heights Of Technical Expertise And Plumbs Depths Of Vacuousness In Story T here 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 fran- chise 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! 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 insepara- ble 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 hav- ing 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 faith- fully 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 inWar)! 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 follow- ing a silly script in which the bulk of the work is done by the cinematographer (Benjamin Jasper), VFX and DI (all fromYRF’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 me- chanical rather than effective, as he was in his last two outings that commercially disappointed but were far superior—VikramVedha 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 writ- er 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 By RajivVijayakar PHOTO:Yash Raj Films Hrithik Roshan and NTR Jr. in War 2. 12 Rare Facts That You May Not Know About Sholay Instead, Sippy gifted him a Fedders Lloyd air-condi- tioner! Sachin says that since that time he has never slept without an AC! 7. The music of the film did not sell and a smart executive of the music label, Polydor, now known as Universal Music, saw the response to the film’s dialogues and (as in the year’s earlier blockbuster, Deewaar) immediately released a double-album of the soundtrack. The two ‘dialogues’ Long-Play records along with the music LP jointly qualified for the Platinum Disc for sales. 8. Danny Denzongpa was earlier approached for the role of Gabbar but had to forgo it as he was busy shooting for Feroz Khan’s Dharmatma. Salim-Javed insisted on Bachchan though Sippy wanted Sha- trughan Sinha as Jai. 9. The Britannia Glucose ad later done by Amjad Khan (when such things were looked down upon then for big stars) was scripted by Salim-Javed themselves. Original props were used and Khan agreed on condi- tion that it was given out that he did it to donate his fees for charity. 10. Asrani, who played the ‘Angrez ke zamane ka jailor’ was provided books and photographs so that he could emit authority as a Hitler-ian figure. 11. Sanjeev Kumar was originally to play an Army officer but his role was shifted to that of a cop, as the mak- ers anticipated censor issues. 12. Jai and Veeru were named after Salim Khan’s college friends, Veerandar Singh Bias, and Jai Singh Rao Kalevar, a vegetable farmer. - Continued From Page 20 PHOTO: Instagram / Ramesh Sippy Sholay completed 50 years on August 15, 2025.