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Join UsStar Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Kiara Advani, Jr. NTR, Ashutosh Rana, Varun Badola
Director: Ayan Mukerji
What’s Good: The technical aspects! Improbable as it is shown, the action (by a bevy of action coordinators) is brilliantly choreographed, accompanied by the requisite camerawork, animation, VFX, AI… whatever.
What’s Bad: The story is threadbare, and this brings down all the cosmetic high.
Loo Break: The songs, despite the eye-candy in Aavan Jaavan.
Watch or Not?: Totally up to you!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 173 Minutes
User Rating:
Kabir, yes, the same ace spy from War, is now a mercenary. He is sought by Kali, a harmless name for a dangerous multi-national cartel of anarchists who are only interested in his record as a killing machine. The nations whose devils comprise Kali are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (represented by a woman with a teeka!), China, Sri Lanka, and Russia—in short, all our neighbouring countries save Nepal and Bhutan.
Kabir says he is reluctant to be anyone’s employee, but is persuaded by Kali. And his first agenda is to kill R&AW chief, Luthra (Ashutosh Rana), who has been a father-figure to him. Left with no choice, Kabir shoots Luthra, and all hell breaks loose.
Luthra’s decorated R&AW officer daughter, Kavya (Kiara Advani), Kabir’s ex-flame, is now determined to kill him. The department, under a new chief, Vikrant (Anil Kapoor), wants him dead too, and the man they choose for this is the maverick Vikram (Jr. NTR), who is an ace himself at unconventional missions.
Meanwhile, as Kabir is ‘working’ for Kali, suddenly other angles come in: Kabir’s protégé from the last instalment, War, the late Khalid (Tiger Shroff)’s mother (Soni Razdan) comes in via a cameo to look after Kabir’s adopted daughter, Ruhi (Dishita Sehgal). Ruhi is the late Naina (Vaani Kapoor from War)’s daughter.
Kabir and Kavya do encounter each other as R&AW catches up with him, but he is always that one step ahead. He also remains ahead in thought and action of Vikram, and we even have a long train sequence (with a car impinged on its front) where Vikram saves Ruhi, who is with Kabir, from death!
And then we have Kabir and Vikram chatting up later and finding out that they have common adversaries! They decide to join hands. But is Vikram really aboveboard? At a crucial stage, the man also reveals that he is, in fact, Kabir’s childhood buddy Raghu.
The plot is more twisted than several corkscrews put together, and while a naam ke liye story is the funda behind most action extravaganzas, it is a superficial and, in fact, hollow yarn this time. And yes, the film lasts a good 173 minutes.
War 2 Movie Review: Script Analysis
Correction! The story goes through about 170 minutes, and the last 180 seconds (!) or so are devoted to the disconnected-to-War 2 promotion of YRF’s new All-Women Spy Universe that is to come, Alpha, featuring end-cameo specialist Bobby Deol (Animal, Housefull 5, and War 2 in decreasing order of importance!). This is a bit like the senseless epilogue featuring Kabir in Tiger 3’s post-climax!
Emotions are forced into the film at regular intervals. The matter concerning Luthra and Kabir (especially during his murder) and their subsequent interactions (from the past), the completely fake-looking sequences between Ruhi and Kabir, the romantic flashback of Kabir and Kavya (which we are told was 15 years back!!!) and even the final drama between Kabir and Raghu are all twirled into this cocktail to try and make it heady. But they all serve only to make the narration’s emotional voltage oh-so-fake, plastic, and messy.
The second half begins with what looks like a different film!! Yes, this is a prolonged saga of two street-children and how Raghu protects and then nurtures (!) Kabir and feels terribly betrayed when Kabir is inducted into the armed forces.
The rest is all a contrived phantasmagoria of action, action, and ACTION!! Shridhar Raghavan, whose work includes epic films like Bluffmaster! and Khakee, delivers his blandest script yet from a ‘story’ by Aditya Chopra. The dialogues (Abbas Tyrewala, the man who wrote Munna Bhai MBBBS, no less) are ho-hum.
And frankly, if Kabir is a part of the Spy Universe, why make his reputation ‘rogue’ again? And for me, the Jr. NTR angle in the post-climax does not work at all.
War 2 Movie Review: Star Performance
Hrithik Roshan has not been at his best of late in terms of post-War film choices, with Vikram Vedha and Fighter not making the expected waves. That said, I loved both those movies and find that this one terribly weak by itself and even more so in comparison. Also, the YRF Spy Universe has seen three other powerhouse dramas (Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, Pathaan) and a decent but comparatively lukewarm thriller in Tiger 3, but War 2 seems to have been made just to cash in.
Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana, and Varun Badola deliver what is expected. Jr. NTR packs a wallop in some sequences, but is ordinary in the rest. And I may be wrong, but the director has probably tried to bring in a bit of déjà vu from RRR. At best, the South icon can be said to be just competent and a bit more. From the child artistes, the boy who plays Raghu is good.
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War 2 Movie Review: Direction, Music
Ayan Mukerji’s work in Wake Up Sid! was above average. He did a splendid job in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and I found his work in Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva extraordinary and pioneering. This time, he must have decided to let his hair down and have a blast, actually leaving the bulk of the work to his back-end team (!!!) of action directors, sound engineers, cinematographers, and technical crew! He barely has anything creative to achieve here!
The background score by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara is loud, and the songs by Pritam are acutely disappointing.
War 2 Movie Review: The Last Word
I think that this time the film will lose its battle (War?) with the ticket-paying audiences.
Two and a half stars!
War 2 Trailer
War 2 released on 14th August, 2025.
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