War 2 review: Hrithik Roshan, Jr NTR take a world tour, story stays home

India Today

5 hours ago

'War 2' raises the benchmark for larger-than-life stunts in Bollywood, but not in the way you would hope. They are more unrealistic, more death-defying, skin-defying, hair-defying, and even eye-defying - all in ways nobody really needed. And that's still not the most surprising part. The Ayan Mukerji-directorial somehow manages to reduce two actors - both mass' favourites, both capable of selling romance, action, drama, and even the occasional illogical stunt - to pawns in a story that never quite decides what it wants to be. Not this time, at least.advertisementThe plot hops hopelessly between 'India First' patriotism, old friendships, new enemies, and a godforsaken cartel that never once feels dangerous enough to deserve Hrithik Roshan's time. Conceived by Aditya Chopra himself, the story ends up being the film's biggest villain. After a point, you stop tracking the actual mission and start focusing on Roshan's stylishly narrowed eyes or Jr NTR's left-sided nose twitch. Two stars trapped in a narrative that is running in circles, with action sequences that add no style - or substance - to the ride.We get fights mid-air, on the water, in ice and fire, train-tunnel collisions, bullet-dodging car chases, and chiselled bodies emerging without a scratch. Fake six-pack abs and worst-possible CGI join the party. In one sequence, NTR takes a bullet dangerously close to his heart, undergoes surgery, and emerges without a single chest hair disturbed. In another, Hrithik and Kiara leap out of a jeep unharmed while bikers continue to shoot at the vehicle - the headlights, miraculously, continue to shine the brightest.
Ashutosh Rana's Colonel Luthra continues his thankless Spy Universe routine, but it's Kiara Advani who feels most wasted. No surprises there, I believe. Her ganji-wearing, bikini-flaunting Air Force officer Kavya serves mainly to make Spain look sunnier. The villains, meanwhile, threaten India and even attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister - missions so original you've never seen or heard of them before.And then there's Ayan Mukerji, who seems convinced that if you can't fix the story, you can at least send it on a lavish world tour. So we jump from India to Spain to Russia to Switzerland, with a quick stop in Manali - all to give the film an 'expensive' gloss, not glossier than Advani's metallic bikini, though. It's like mailing a badly-written postcard from multiple countries just to prove you've travelled. The backdrops are postcard-perfect, but when the plot is flatter than the Swiss plains and the thrills are almost as believable as a snowstorm in Delhi, the scenery becomes just a bright wallpaper.By the time the film loops back to where it started, the villains' master-plan and the heroes' bulletproof cheekbones have both stopped mattering. Anil Kapoor turns up in a role so weightless, you wonder if they just needed another name on the poster. The entire world of 'War 2' feels hurried - a film green-lit simply because the Spy Universe needed its next chapter, definitely not because anyone had a story worth telling. Honestly, the film just ends up making the whole YRF spy world look less like an event and more like a noisy, expensive bubble that is ready to be burst.advertisement An unimpressive BGM (particularly the lion roar for NTR), and misplaced songs do not satiate your excitement about watching a larger-than-life spy drama on the big screen. When the credits roll, you are left with the faint hum of jet engines (running on a racetrack), and the feeling that the only real war here is between logic and budget. And the budget wins.- EndsTune InTrending Reel
IN THIS STORY#Hrithik Roshan#Kiara Advani