War 2 Is More Preoccupied With Slo-Mo Walks Than The Ground Its Heroes Cover

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AYAN MUKERJI’s War 2 is the sixth film in the Yash Raj Spy Universe. It is a precarious position to be in, not least because its prequel, Siddharth Anand’s War (2019) remains objectively fun. A more pressing concern is that through the years — from Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger (2012) to now — the politics of the setting has altered. India in 2025 is not what it was a decade ago, and the shift has transformed other things. What would be identified as sweeping patriotism in the past runs the risk of being jingoistic now; what would qualify as defending the country now translates to not questioning it.

To be fair, the films have been largely attuned to it. The franchise is imbued with a pluralism that accommodates shapeshifting ideals of heroes and villany. This is both rare and old-school, aligning with the secular subtext evident in films backed by the production house (Akshay Kumar’s Samrat Prithviraj was a rare exception). Tiger and Pathaan (essayed by Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan respectively), the two big architects of the spyverse, inhabit the disillusionment that comes with their job even when they remain committed to it. Their devotion translates to protecting the nation and questioning it, in seeking answers to queries like why should the country also not do its bit? Why, asked Tiger, can he not love Zoya, a Pakistani spy? Why, asked Pathaan, could they not prevent an ex-Indian spy from turning rogue?

War had perpetuated the commentary by refusing to slot loyalty to one person or religion. In Anand’s film, both the dreamy Kabir Dhaliwal (Hrithik Roshan) and his diligent protege Khalid Rahmani (Tiger Shroff) headlined the archaic narrative of putting nation before self. Mukerji’s War 2 reiterates it, in many many words, and yet refuses to inspect either of the entities. This lack of bite makes it the most facile film in the franchise, one too preoccupied with slo-mo walks than the land on which the spies are walking on.

Perhaps if the visuals were fetching, one would revisit the weighty questions in hindsight. But Mukerji’s film, his first work for hire, is worryingly ineffective. It is not so much the stunts as the green screen acting from both the leads. Neither Roshan, who reprises his role, nor Jr NTR, making his Hindi film debut and playing Indian agent Vikram Chelapathi, can gauge the scale of the action set pieces they are in. They glide on a moving train like taking a walk in Lokhandwala, keep giving looks to the camera even when a young girl hangs from a floating car, and hang from a flight like they have a parachute built into their feet. Such artifice diminishes their heroism, making it look unfeeling and cold and not something tactile like a bruised Shah Rukh Khan in the opening scenes (and arguably the best entry shot in the last decade) of Pathaan.

The production, however, sustains. The narrative gallops from Spain to Rome, Dubai to New Delhi, Switzerland to Germany. It is not so much a requirement as a flex. Characters saunter in and out of countries but their visa validity evokes more curiosity than the plot. Kabir, a lone wolf (a very VFX wolf appears as if to underline the point), is still rogue. This, of course, is a front to be fake-allies with the nation’s adversaries; this time it is a phantom group of powerful people (politicians and industrialists alike) from seven countries, seeking to monopolise control. To prove his allegiance to them, Kabir has to kill Colonel Sunil Luthra (Ashutosh Rana); he does.

This sets the story in motion, bringing in a host of new characters: Luthra’s daughter and Wing Commander Kavya (Kiara Advani); a new RAW chief, Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor); and Vikram, the new agent. All three join forces to get hold of Kabir as the latter tries safeguarding the country. One twist follows another, none really fun, and in a pre-interval scene, Vikram flies from Delhi to Spain to meet Kabir. They drink and dance (Roshan floats in the air) and Tiger Shroff is missed.

Before long it becomes clear that Vikram’s belief system differs from Kabir. If the latter puts country first then he puts himself before the country. Through them War 2 (written by Shridhar Raghavan and dialogues by Abbas Tyrewala) puts forth a Pathaanesque conundrum. In that, Jim (John Abraham) switched sides because he was betrayed by the country and the film was attentive enough to acknowledge it. In this case, however, one man’s ideology is pitted against the other, and by doing so both characters feel shortchanged. Mukerji’s film refuses to see the misgivings of the person rejecting the old order or the blind spots of the one accepting it. War 2 steers clear of ambiguity and by doing so, proposes an unfeasible task: to keep loving something — nation or nationalism— without checking up on it.

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