Crackdown season 2 review: Saqib Saleem, Iqbal Khan, and Shriya Pilgaonkar take the story up a notch

3/5

Story: The Saqib Saleem, Iqbal Khan, and Shriya Pilgaonkar starrer is the tale of a few RAW agents of India who are adamant about saving their country from terrorists and any foreign enemies. Crackdown season 2 is a continuation of the first installment, which witnesses an unusual highjack where terrorists make the whole plane disappear along with 80 Indians. The brave Indian agents are now set to embark on an important mission to save their people and bring them home.

Review: In the first season of Crackdown, Divya (Shriya) joins the covert Indian agency as an outsider after the RAW agents save her from a terrorist group. After a small misunderstanding and a small spat between Riyaaz aka RP (Saqib) and Zorawar (Iqbal) in the last part, the two join hands to curb the enemies together to maintain the sovereignty of their country.

One of the best parts of the latest season is that the writers maintain the momentum of the show and don't let the fresh characters and the new plot twist break it by keeping the core of the show the same through the seasons. On the other hand, director Apoorva Lakhia executes the screenwriters' vision well on the screen. Except for a few sequences that seem to pass through the episodes in a hurry and don't let the audience process new developments in the story very well.

Yet, the new plotline somehow makes the story compelling and causes the audience to eagerly await the rest of the episodes.

Saqib, Iqbal, and Shriya are reprising their badass characters, while Sonali Kulkarni is the new addition to the series in place of Rajesh Tailang's Ashwini, who died in the last season. Ankur Bhatia, as a Pakistani officer, continues to be the antagonist, while Freddy Daruwala also joins the action-thriller show as the main villain, who is a Pakistani terrorist named Abu Khalil.

Saqib and Iqbal play their characters well and entertain the audience with all the stunts and action sequences, while Shriya appears quite refreshing as her character graph has taken a notch with the new challenges and dangers she is facing in the new mission. Meanwhile, the stunning actor moves ahead with the new development in her role very graciously, which makes it natural.

On the other hand, Freddy still has a lot to showcase because the first two episodes only introduce him as this lethal antagonist, but his character appears as the same old predictable terrorist delivering big and boring dialogues.

Verdict: It is still too soon to say if the Apoorva Lakhia directorial is good or bad. However, the power-pack performances certainly make it worthy of watching at least once.