Introduction
If you’re among those who think making an action movie is easy—just pack it with star power and a few set pieces, and the rest doesn’t matter—you’re absolutely wrong. Grab a ticket and watch War 2 to prove me otherwise… or argue with a wall! The sequel to Siddharth Anand’s 2019 blockbuster War finally arrives, clouded by skepticism over its new director Ayan Mukerji and those ‘YRF-special’ below-average CGI shots teased in the trailer. While the film delivers some solid performances and a fresh angle on the already dubious YRF Spy Universe, things go awry in several other aspects. Apart from Hrithik Roshan, War 2 stars NTR Jr (in his Hindi debut) and Kiara Advani in lead roles, with Ashutosh Rana, Anil Kapoor, Varun Badol, and Soni Razdan playing supporting roles.
Basic Plot
Indian secret agent Kabir Dhaliwal has gone rouge once again and this time, the Indian Intelligence appoint a Special Units Officer, Agent Vikram, to nab and stop Kabir.
Positives
Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Cast performances, and Action bits-n-pieces
Hrithik Roshan has really given it his all and it's clear from his performance that there is no War without Kabir. He carries out the devilish attitude of a rogue agent with effortless charm, giving away some smirks, sniping enemies from afar, cutting people into halves, and even befriending a wolf- An absolute beast! In spite of War 2 being an action film, Roshan flexes his dynamism and carries out action, emotion, and drama with utmost conviction. Hrithik's entry scene with that katana sword gave of serious Kill Bill Vol 1 vibes, and a following 'blink and miss' 3 second scene would also remind you of the one-take hotel fight scene from the 2003 film Oldboy. The climax is full of those flashback-realization moments, and Roshan just nails it — he fights, pauses to process, goes at it again with less intensity, gets hit, and still keeps you hooked. The whole staging there was just superb. Talking about NTR, he was top-notch as well. His entry sequence in the ship was staged well with some sporadic situational humor, but what elevated the scene was his 'Shaitaan' theme; not sure if that was the best background score, but it worked well with NTR's beat-synched entry scene nonetheless. He's surprisingly agile in the action scenes and pretty convincing in the dramatic scenes as well. I liked his Hindi accent by the way, and I really did not think that he would sound so organically well in Hindi! The supporting cast does well to keep up with the leads and while Kiara Advani has a relatively smaller role with an even smaller purpose (owing to an underwritten character), she looks stunning throughout and does a bit of action too. The climax fight in the airplane hangar is easily one of the coolest moments — a slick top shot of Kiara spinning with dual pistols, shredding through the enemy circle in perfect sync with the BGM. Pure goosebumps stuff! The entire action and car chase sequence that's shot in Spain is nicely staged and shot, which gives you the tension and thrill especially when coupled with the Spanish music that served as the background score. The sequence does gets quite boomy and overwhelming in terms of CGI when the train comes into the picture, but it has a subtle drama angle as well to mend things up. Overall, it's the cast performances which balances out the directorial mess to a certain extent.
Drama portions, last 50 minutes, and a Recurring villain
War 2 focuses on the drama portions quite a lot (something that's not Spy Universe's forte), and while I'm not really sure about whether it contributes to the genre in a good or bad way, it does provide a new take on this franchise. The drama portions are surely a positive of this film and it feels quite nice to see an element other than action, serving as the catalyst in an action centric film. Apart from some scenes in the first half, the drama is further uplifted by the dual act of child actors Manthan Darji and Hearty Singh in the second half, and the scenes involving the two have a really good storytelling. The emotions in those scenes manage to strike a chord with the audience and that's surely a plus. The last 50 minutes of the film (that's essentially from the point where the Aavan Jaavan song starts) is really engaging, which, apart from the cast performances, is elevated by the pulpy screenplay elements incorporated by Shridhar Raghavan. Events from the first half find relevance and meaning in the last half of the film, and even the pace becomes quick, which lets this film finish on a high in spite of a lot of info-dump and conversation moments through out the runtime. What director Ayan Mukherji has been able to do, above all, is create a villain who seems destined to remain the bad guy in future films of this universe. This Thanos (even if wannabe) was very necessary for an unplanned universe like this to sustain, and now when it's here, things shall get interesting in the future.
Underwhelming Aspects
Inconsistency, Below par direction, and Average action
Apart from the genuine positives like cast performances and a preference towards drama, what all you've read till now were mainly the sparks and flashes that I've found upon a detailed look. But for the majority of the audience, this film may feel very flat and bland; direction being the main culprit. After the 400-crore sci-fi mess that Ayan Mukherji delivered in the name of Brahmastra back in 2022, who on earth would’ve thought producer Aditya Chopra would hand him another 400 crores — this time for a genre that isn’t Mukherji’s forte even by a thousand miles? As much as I am surprised by this decision, I’m equally enraged after watching the film. You didn’t have to do Hrithik Roshan dirty by bringing in Mukherji to direct the sequel to the highest-grossing film of Roshan’s career. Why would you? What was the desperation to arrange a ‘How to make an action film?’ internship for Mukherji and select War 2 as his final-year project? The entire film suffers from a disease called inconsistency — one so pervasive that not a single department is spared. Right from visuals, to action, to editing, camera work, and even the background score — things are so erratic that it may even test your patience level. Not a single aspect other than the cast performances and drama is consistent throughout! Every aspect that is good, is equally underwhelming as well; a serious 'hit and miss' affair! You are served abnormally amplified CGI stuff in the name of action spectacle; Airplane and speedboat action sequences fail to generate even half the tension and thrill that films like War and Pathaan generated with hand-to-hand combats. The film is a Hindi actioner as long as Hrithik is on screen, and as soon as NTR enters, the film suddenly shifts gears to become a template based Telugu actioner, only to come back to it's own form when Hrithik re-enters. That's the level of inconsistency! Talking about the screenplay; From Tiger 3 onwards, it was becoming evident that writer Shridhar Raghavan is exhausting himself faster than we’d have liked. That exhaustion continues to weigh down War 2 with sub-par writing. Yet directors like Siddharth Anand, Ali Abbas Zafar, or even the duo Raj & DK could have masked it so well that the audience wouldn’t even notice the drop from Raghavan’s usual standards. But Ayan, with his dangerously limited grasp of action filmmaking, has only amplified the mediocrity. Transitions are amateurly handled, and so are some of the screenplay elements, that makes simple things complex; a very Brahmastra problem I must say!
Conclusion
Hrithik Roshan seriously deserves a better director; it's sad to see the sequel to his highest grosser failing to match up to the hype that we, as school students, witnessed it's predecessor generate, six years ago. Departments like editing, CGI, BGM, action, and camera work have been good in several instances, but it's the overall inconsistency that did not allow these aspects to shine, apart from some irregularly occasional moments. The absense of any punchy one-liners is a solid and unexpected blunder committed by Abas Tyrewala, which is sure to raise some eyebrows. War 2 is heavily shouldered by Hrithik Roshan and NTR, in spite of the makers' terrible confusion about whether to show the latter as good or bad. The ending is good and so is the post credit scene, which leaves me excited for the next film Alpha, mostly due to The railway Men fame Shiv Ravail helming the story and direction. Ayan Mukherji should really stay out of this universe if the makers want to take it anywhere near 'acceptability', by the time it ends. Relying on action directors is good, but you have to have your own idea, so that the audience get the intended feel as well. Seriously speaking, no one apart from Siddharth Anand was able to crack the formula of designing an entertaining and massy spy thriller with a pacy writing, post the establishment (even if messy) of the spy universe, beginning with Pathaan in 2023. War 2 will mint enough money this weekend but even then, the job would be far from over. With a generously long runtime of 173 minutes and some dull moments to make things worse, it remains to be seen if the audience continues to watch this film in the weekdays due to the emotional angle, or just simply reject it as it's not worth their time. 'He's a soldier, you're a soldier, and this is War' says Ashutosh Rana in the film, and he's right— this is a Hrithik's War indeed, but not just against NTR, but against bad direction as well.
Watch Out For
- Hrithik Roshan and NTR
- The 'kintsugi' reference, indicating a Pathaan sequel (maybe)
- The post credit scene
- cast performances and climax action
WTF Rating
6.5/10