War 2’s tragic flaw is that it can’t decide who Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR are at war with

I decided to brave the lukewarm reviews of War 2 and watch the film a day after it was released. I had enjoyed the masala-laden mediocrity of War, which was essentially a battle of whose abs or dance moves were better. Tiger Shroff gave us a career-best performance as he represented our collective awe at Hrithik Roshan emerging from a helicopter. But as I sat through almost three hours of War 2 with two leading men trying to have the last word while mouthing vacuous dialogue, I couldn’t help but wonder, why was War 2 made? Though it has many shortcomings, an RRR-inspired background score with Telugu lyrics in a Hindi film being the least of them, War 2’s tragic flaw is the absence of a “good old-fashioned villain”.

In War 2, Kabir, the YRF Spy Universe’s Ethan Hunt, a disavowed R&AW agent, is trying to infiltrate a shadowy organisation called the Kali cartel. The cartel comprises powerful and wealthy individuals from some of India’s neighbouring countries, who have formed alliances with Russia and China. I couldn’t help but notice an Antilla-sized parallel where India is represented by a wealthy businessman who wants to control the Prime Minister of India. However, a group of men and women obscured by poor special effects is not the same as one definitive face of evil. Also, this highly secretive and exclusive group is then bumped off in an extended montage, making you wonder what the whole difficulty was in the first place. If the hero manages to escape virtually unharmed and is seemingly unchanged at the end of the story, why and with whom was he at war?

Hrithik Roshan and Junior NTR play friends turned foes turned friends who break into a song and dance in the middle of trash-talking each other. There are multiple twists and tangles about who is a good guy pretending to be a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. We get a glimpse into Kabir’s back story and understand how Colonel Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) and his colleagues chose boys/men who needed purpose to create a kintsugi of broken but brave agents ready to serve the nation. But unlike Pathaan which had Jim (John Abraham), or Tiger 3 which had Aatish Rehman (Emraan Hashmi), which were both YRF Spy Universe films, War 2 seems hampered by Junior NTR’s celebrity status in Telugu cinema. As the film progresses, one can sense the indecisiveness from the creative team, almost as if they were debating as they filmed if a man who has always played the hero could go over to the dark side. Why else would a man get away with murdering an entire family, conspiring to kill the Prime Minister and participating in a conspiracy to destabilise the government, all because of a perceived childhood betrayal or loss of opportunity? If this is not a commentary on how elastic our moral standards are when it comes to men, including fictional ones, I don’t know what is.

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The diminishing quality of villains has plagued multiple franchises and universes in India. Take YRF’s Dhoom franchise, for example. Dhoom 1 had John Abraham playing the calm and calculating Kabir, who heads a group of thieves that rob banks and escape on high-end motorcycles. He is challenged by ACP Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan), who teams up with fast-talking Ali Akbar (Uday Chopra) to catch the gang and bring them to justice. Kabir and Jai are equally matched in skill, intelligence and intent, and like a good villain, they challenge each other every step of the way. In Dhoom 2, Hrithik Roshan played the impossibly handsome thief Aryan, who steals rare jewels and artefacts. While he was not an overt villain like Kabir, he didn’t offer any sob story for why he was a thief. Unfortunately, in Dhoom 3, Aamir Khan played the villain, and his aura of righteousness cast a shadow on the film’s story. Aamir played a double role in the film, performing the characters of twin brothers who are robbing branches of a fictional bank in Chicago. Their crimes are supposedly justified because their father, who couldn’t repay the bank’s loan, died by suicide in front of his young sons. By adding an element of revenge and moral grandstanding against a bank that became a symbol of capitalism and crushed dreams, Dhoom 3 diluted the premise of the franchise, where a smart cop chased a cool thief who stole stuff simply because he wanted to.

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Singham and the extended Rohit Shetty cop universe have also suffered because of weak villains or heroes unwilling to show vulnerability. The first Singham saw the earthy, village-bred Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) lock horns with wicked politician Jaikant Shikre (Prakash Raj). The two actors committed themselves completely to the film’s over-the-top massy tone, and we saw the hero feel truly challenged in the face of an evil man like Shikre. The subsequent films in the Singham sub franchise, Singham Returns or Singham Again, have not been able to match the impact that Ajay and Prakash Raj on screen. Simmba and Sooryavanshi also lacked memorable villains or villainous characters that were written or performed in a manner that would distinguish them.

While Koi… Mil Gaya was more of a film about friendship and loyalty; Krrish had the villainous Dr Arya (Naseeruddin Shah), who wanted to control the world with his futuristic computer. Naseeruddin Shah performed his character like the quintessential bad guy from children’s comic books and stories. He was pure evil and unapologetic about it. But sadly, with Krrish 3, things went downhill rapidly. Poor Vivek Oberoi and Kangana Ranaut were reduced to caricatures who seemed more funny than fearsome, and safe to say, those costumes and characters will haunt their filmography for decades to come.

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I once attended a talk with noted lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar, who was asked a question about memorable villains like Gabbar and Mogambo. Javed said that the villains he and Salim Khan created weren’t run-of-the-mill crooks. They were larger than life, their actions had very serious consequences, and they were determined to succeed. Audiences were intrigued and frightened by them, and worried about whether the hero/heroes would be able to win. This then caused them to invest in the hero’s journey and root for him as he overcame obstacles and slowly reached his goal.

Unfortunately, in War 2 and many Bollywood films made within a franchise, the focus shifts to building the scale of the film rather than building characters and conflict. So, while the movie may be visually impactful, it leaves us neither stirred nor shaken emotionally. If one can feel bored looking at Hrithik Roshan on screen, watching his blow-dried hair barely move as he tackles the bad guy/guys on a boat, atop an aircraft and in an ice cave, the film needs a better story, but more importantly, a better villain.

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