Dhurandhar 2 Movie Review: Ranveer Singh’s 4-hour marathon lacks the ‘mazaa’ of the original despite blood and bazookas

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I missed Akshaye Khanna’s stylish Rehman Dakait, the Baloch overlord who keeps the warring warlords of Lyari under his thumb, who gets bumped off in the first part: I was really hoping he would magically re-appear. Though Khanna’s smirk was never allowed to slip off, there was no doubt that he kept things humming, and his sexy little shimmy, along with Flipperachi’s catchy tune, was a high.

The challenge was a no-brainer: would Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar 2 be able to equal or better part one, which ratcheted a potent mix of slick action, lilting music, gruesome violence, and straight-up propaganda to a such a height that it left, in its wake, rapt viewers, unprecedented box office gains and an unparalleled anticipation for the follow-up?

Dhurandhar 2 Movie Review: Ranveer Singh film fails to deliver same mazaa as Dhurandhar.

Short answer: no. On all counts, this nearly four hour marathon featuring the dangerous alleys of Karachi underworld Lyari now being lorded over by our patriotic super spy Jaskirat Singh Rangi aka Hamza Ali Mazari (Ranveer Singh) continuing his duel against the blood-thirsty ISI Major Iqbal (Arjun Rampal) and his cohorts, including SP Chaudhury Aslam (Sanjay Dutt) and a zillion bazooka-toting bozos, is simply not entertaining enough, forcing us to ask, after each headlined ‘chapter’, is that all you’ve got?

This is what happens when you bludgeon us from the get-go with so much spurting blood, broken bones, flying limbs, torn bodies, flayed skin in part one. Did I leave anything out? The extreme violence in the first part left us so numb, that nothing in the second — not even the most vicious ploy which ends with a limbless body being blown up in smithereens, or even a severed head being kicked — can shock us. The CBFC also seems to be confused about which of the cuss words it needs to mute, and which it allows the characters to spray about, fouling the air.

Because the film blatantly showed its hand in the first part with its non-stop array of murderous Baloch characters and an artful mix of fact and fiction — talking wistfully of ‘ek din aisi sarkaar ayegi’ etc — the apologia for note-bandi (which many soothsayers correctly predicted) was almost expected. This duly happens, under the ever watchful eye of IB chief Ajay Sanyal (R Madhavan) and his deputy (Manav Gohil), with the film triumphantly telling us that the overnight demonetisation was indeed a masterstroke because it stopped yet another dastardly ISI plan in its tracks. And all the sabre-rattling hyper-nationalism acted out through hyper-masculine slo-mo striding becomes a blur all too soon: how much jai jingoism can a movie spew? Yawn.

Cool hoods always make things better, and no one in this second part comes close, with Rehman Dakait’s loyal brother and would-be Lyari heir (Danish Pandor) being sidelined, Dutt’s cop clomping thobbishly about, and the gold-toothed Rampal being constantly de-fanged by his foul-mouthed, confined to the wheelchair-father: their sequences have a little more zing than some of the more stretched-out high-octane set-pieces.

Sara Arjun, reprising her part as the lone important woman in this all-male ensemble, gets a few scenes which she makes the most of; her father, the weaselly politician Jameel Jamali (Rakesh Bedi) returns too, and he is as effective as he was in the first part. So is Gaurav Gera as Jaskirat’s embedded local handler, who gets an interesting little slice, all to himself.

Finally, it is Ranveer Singh who keeps us looking, all through the plodding first half, and in the slightly-more speeded up post-interval section, with his light-eyed gaze turning steely and soft by turns, keeping the flag waving. The pain of Jaskirat — his backstory is tightly told — is transmuted into the fire that keeps Hamza burning, and Ranveer makes a handy meal of both sides of the coin, luxe locks firmly in place. I have to say that torture doesn’t suit him; Vicky Kaushal did a better job of being strung up and savaged in Chhava. But an unexpectedly moving coda makes up the finale, leaving the door open for more adventures.

The first part had left me conflicted: yes, its intent was propaganda, but it was wrapped in pacy, racy story-telling, embellished with some terrific musical flourishes, and I was quite taken by all the to-ing and fro-ing, and shooting and scooting. In the second part, to paraphrase a character, itna mazaa nahin aaya.

Dhurandhar 2 cast: Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Sara Arjun, Rakesh Bedi, Danish Pandor, Gaurav Gera, Manav Gohil, Raj Zutshi
Dhurandhar 2 director: Aditya Dhar
Dhurandhar 2 rating: 2 stars