Ayan Mukerji’s War 2, the follow-up to Siddharth Anand’s War (2019) and the latest instalment in the ever-expanding YRF Spy Universe, stages a high-stakes contest of patriotic fervour, shifting loyalties, and double-crosses between two intelligence operatives willing to pursue their cause at any cost. Though the concept has ambition, the film is far from a relentless thrill ride. The bursts of action and dramatic moments it musters rarely sustain the momentum and precision needed to offset its loopholes and longueurs.
In pursuit of a mission to safeguard India, Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) infiltrates Kalee, a clandestine network of powerful businessmen from neighbouring nations intent on manipulating the country’s political future. Unaware of Kabir’s covert agenda, the newly appointed RAW chief, Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor), assembles an elite unit led by the ruthlessly efficient Major Vikram (NT Rama Rao Jr) and Wing Commander Kavya (Kiara Advani) to bring him down. As the hunt intensifies, old wounds resurface and buried histories come to light, turning the confrontation between Kabir and Vikram into one of deeply personal reckoning…
War 2 opts for scale and spectacle, aiming to go bigger and bolder than its predecessor. The set pieces are elaborately choreographed and resolutely larger-than-life, punctuated by dramatic interludes that attempt but don’t entirely succeed to lend the central characters a degree of emotional substance and clarity of motive. The narrative trades heavily on reversals, twist upon twist, to sustain engagement in a world where appearances are rarely what they seem. Backstories are sketched in for the principal players, anchoring their choices in personal histories. Yet, the film feels uneven. It is over-reliant on exposition, structurally untidy, and unwilling to step clear of well-worn genre tropes. After all, how many more times must we endure a conspiracy that inevitably resolves into an assassination plot against the Prime Minister?
As a calculated piece of franchise strategy, the film pits Hrithik Roshan against NT Rama Rao Jr (NTR Jr), here making his Hindi cinema debut, in a deliberate bid to fuse the star power of North and South. The intention is made almost overtly explicit in Vikram’s entrance, heralded by the roar of a tiger on the soundtrack. This gesture is less organic characterisation than marketing shorthand. The Kabir–Vikram chases are extended and geographically restless, ricocheting from one exotic location to another with the air of a tourism campaign. Their frequency and speed of arrival are so frequent that by the time the climax approaches, the anticipation has begun to dissipate. The final confrontation is admittedly staged with considerable thrill. Yet, its resolution trades the moral clarity of good vanquishing evil for a redemptive note. Moments later, however, that note is undercut by a revelation seemingly engineered to gratify a particular regional audience segment.
The screenplay by Shridhar Raghavan, taking excessive creative license, employs two major flashbacks. One traces Kabir and Vikrant’s connection back to their childhood, offering a rationale for Vikrant’s vendetta against Kabir. Yet, the reasoning feels insufficiently convincing and lacks the imaginative elasticity the story required. The other, Kavya’s romantic subplot with Kabir, is no more persuasive, seemingly included chiefly to justify the insertion of a song sequence. In fact, War 2 struggles to make most of its narrative beats feel purposeful. The plotting, too often, appears underdeveloped, the set pieces derivative, devoid of the necessary sustained tension and urgency.
Hrithik Roshan handles both action and emotional beats with equal poise. NT Rama Rao Jr matches his screen presence and delivers a performance of comparable weight. Anil Kapoor projects the gravitas expected of a RAW chief, though his near-uniform expression across almost all his scenes dulls the impact. Kiara Advani is largely sidelined and treated as secondary to the mission. Ashutosh Rana and Varun Badola use their limited screen time to strong effect, each leaving a memorable enough impression.
Benjamin Jasper’s cinematography aligns fluidly with both the film’s emotional register and its large-scale action sequences. Editor Aarif Sheikh maintains pace and rhythm where possible, though the dragging screenplay often limits his influence. Sanchit and Ankit Balhara’s background score injects bursts of energy, though, at times, overwhelming the subtler elements of the sound design. The two songs composed by Pritam serve more as functional insertions than as integral components of the narrative’s texture.
In the end, War 2 delivers on the franchise’s promise of scale, star power, and some spectacle, yet remains tethered to the limitations of formula. Its moments of visual flair, muscular action, and committed lead performances are offset by narrative contrivances, uneven pacing, and an overdependence on twists that strain credibility.
Hindi, Action, Drama, Color