War 2, Review: RAW deal, plane truth and Special Oops

War 2, Review: RAW deal, plane truth and Special Oops

War, spelt in reverse is Raw. In India, which is not at war with any country at the time of writing this review, RAW stands for Research & Analysis Wing, the official secret service of the country. Being a secret service, little info should be available about it in the public domain. However, it is common knowledge that a secret service deals with espionage, planting and exposing secret agents, exposing double agents, being on the lookout for ‘compromises’, meaning infiltration into their own cadres or operatives who crossover to the other side, evacuating its citizens from evil captors, and ‘terminating’/‘neutralising’ persons who are a threat to the country, its military, and its economy. It deals with planting and eliminating agents or ‘assets’, as required, and spends unbelievable amounts of money to achieve its goals. A Google search will tell you that RAW was probably established in 1968, its headquarters are located in the CGO Complex, New Delhi, and it operates under the Prime Minister's Office. You can contact Ms. Anindita Sinharay, Deputy Director General, at anindita@nic.in or by phone, at 23455210. I did not, because my brief is to write about War 2, and not the Real RAW.

In about 100 films made in the last 10-12 years and 500 episodes on TV and the Internet, we have seen RAW in action. Currently a rage on OTT is the series, Special Ops (a camouflage for espionage). You could blame it on a certain Ian Fleming and his iconic character, James Bond, Britain’s MI6’s spy, Agent 007, with the 00 prefix standing for a blanket license to kill, also the most ‘encashed’ and enduring film series, for the last 63 years, and still not willing to retire. The US has its CIA, Israel its Mossad, and almost every major country in the world has its own branded foreign (external) intelligence secret service, which, by definition, does not exist, and so, neither do its operatives. But many countries, led by the USA, have made films about the achievements of its espionage agency.                                                             

The current upsurge in content, in India, that has RAW as its base, should be interpreted in the context of the present political dispensation of the country, and some recent near-war events. A few of these films were said to have been inspired by real events, but most were/are on a fictional trip, as is War 2. In another 2-3 years, every Indian actor worth his/her salt, would have played either a RAW agent, official or Chief. In War 2, we have Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana, Kiara Advani and N.T. Rama Rao Junior, essaying parts of RAW personnel. Does that make the movie Special? Yes….Oops, NO!

Kabeer, a former RAW agent, who went rogue several years ago, has since emerged as a contract killer. Charging a flat fee of USD 1.2 million for every contract, he goes so far as to kill even the RAW Chief, who had adopted him, after rescuing him from a Remand Home for young criminals. In response to his growing threat, the Indian government despatches Officer Vikram, an elite operative, known for his ruthless precision and zero failure rate, to neutralise Kabeer. Also in the equation is Kaavya, the RAW Chief’s daughter, an ace pilot with the air force, who was in love with the family’s ward (the love was mutual; the skimpiest excuse for a bikini, and two songs are evidence enough), and has now joined hands with Vikram, to take on Kabeer. Behind all this is Kali, a conglomerate of big business tycoons from India and five of its neighbours: China, Pakistan, BanglaDesh, SriLanka and Myanmar, who communicate with Kabeer, in virtual mode, with faces blurred. But, impressed by his track record, the Indian on the Board, a man named Gautam Gulati, appears in person, to assign Kabir a task that will change the leadership in India, to more malleable and amenable ministries. What does Kali (Hindustani for bid) stand for, and how was it formed is not considered worth telling viewers of, standalone, War 2 about.

Story by producer Aditya Chopra, screenplay by Shridhar Raghavan and dialogue by Abbas Tyrewala comprise the writing credits. All three contributed to the first foray, War (2019). But coming to six years later, the three of them will have to take the blame, along with director Ayan Mukerji (from the extended Mukerji film-family, which is now in its third generation), for starting on one plane and then shooting-off, at a tangent, to different planes. About a quarter of the 179 minutes long film features aero-planes, but only about 1.79 minutes show the planes from the inside. For the rest, it has people being led to board planes, dangling from planes, jumping with parachutes from planes, planes on top of planes, battles on top of planes, …now, now, now, wait a minute! I am not forgetting the helicopters and the trains and the motor-boats and the cars, but more about them later. All three doff their hats repeatedly, to the 1975 classic, Deewar, written by Salim Javed and directed by Aditya’s father, late Yash Chopra.

Kabeer is introduced with some panache, arriving at the hideout of a Japanese crime boss (they call gang members Yakuza; the boss is called Kumicho), ostensibly sent by a rival Kumicho, with instructions to kill him. He does more than that, eliminating the whole gang and blowing up their hideout, single-handedly, followed in his actions by an unpatriotic wolf, that changes sides on Kabeer’s arrival, and instead of being his arch rival, becomes his pet puppy. Let’s cry wolf! Wolf whistles, anyone? What does Kali have against Japan? And pray, why Japan? Answer: Where else would you have JAPANESE martial arts and its practitioners, best displayed, and vanquished, by an INDIAN? If Kali can go to the extent of kidnapping the RAW chief, holding him, with hands and feet bound, why does it have to tell Kabeer to take him to an isolated rail track, kneel before him and get a bullet on the forehead, all for $1.2 million? So much for rescuing teenage crimional Kabeer from a Remand Home, and bringing him-up as his own son.

It is largely believed, and not wrongly, by film writers and directors, that souped-up action and thrills will only resonate if they have back-stories, flashbacks, or emotional tracks. War 2 takes this tenet too seriously. About a third of the film is spent on trying to tug at your heart, and not at your mind. Sadly, almost all of it, especially the dialogue, strikes you as fake and make-believe. Now, since you don’t resonate with the emotional track, you cannot be blamed for not resonating, or, at least, not resonating in the desired measure, to the action-thrills track.

Director Ayan Mukerji, in his first outing outside Dharma Productions, comes in place of War(1) director Siddharth Anand, lands jumping, and tries to traverse the ‘outer’ space of YashRaj Films (YRF)’ ‘Spyverse’ in spyship No. 6, but in trying to make the journey a roller-coaster ride, forgets that such rides end where they began. The passengers (audiences) are dizzy, in a tizzy, getting thrills and chills, for the duration of the ride, but there is very little to write home about, once they get bizzy…er…busy. To compensate for the thin and largely incredible plot, YRF and Mukerji go overboard in choreographing action and fights. To be fair to them, there is no dearth of spectacle, and only some of it seems incredible. On the other hand, there is no dearth of emotion, and very little of it seems credible.

Hrithik Roshan as Kabeer fights and dances as only he can, and emotes well too. Anil Kapoor is polished, as usual. As Kaavya, Kiara Advani gets to win a medal, join the RAW mission and expose much more than what the 13+ censor rating certificate should allow.

NTR Jr. is always a force to reckon with. And in his Hindustani debut, cast as Vikram, he seems to have spoken/dubbed his lines himself. If that is the case, it is an outstanding job. Ashutosh Rana, along with Anupam Kher, might soon vie for the maximum portrayals of ultra-nationalists. Given their range of talent, this would be a bit unfair to them. Rana is plumb with his patriotic bon mots, but it takes a bit of suspension of disbelief to accept him as the Chief of RAW.

Appreciable support comes from Varun Badola as Minister Vilasrao Sarang, Arista Mehta as Ruhi Sahni, K. C. Shankar as Gautam Gulati, Kwon Sung Young (a Korean?) as Kumicho, Soni Razdan as Nafisa Rahmani, Khalid's mother (cameo), Tiger Shroff as Captain Khalid Rahmani (flashback, blink and miss appearance), Vaani Kapoor as Naina Sahni and Bobby Deol as the Spoiler. Spoiler? But I did not tell you what role he plays! So, no spoilers.

Visuals are stunning, and cinematography by Australian camera-wizard Benjamin Jasper, ACS, is first-rate. In 2015, he was invited by Siddharth Anand to shoot Bang, which features one of the best car crashes seen in 50 years. In 2018-19, Ben re-united with Siddharth Anand to shoot War, a gruelling production, shot in 9 countries.  Ben has been nominated for and won several international awards, for his craft in cinematography. Leaving the total length of the film aside, editing by Aarif Sheikh is crisp. Credentials include Samay-When Time Strikes, Makdee, Maqbool, Haider, Let`s Dance (also directed), A Gentleman and Gunjan Saxena.

Now a word each about the swagger, and the landing and head-raising poses, de rigueur in most action/espionage and super-hero films. The way opponents sneer and grin at each other, and the mode in which they land, with one palm and one knee on the floor, head lowered, then raise their heads slowly,

have been flogged once too often, both in Indian and international cinema. Directors must realise that in doing so, the action stars give their opponents time to target them, without even being seen by the superman. Sections of the audience might still go to watch these heroics and super-heroics films for these very reasons, and might still continue to applaud and whistle, whenever such scenes occur, and recur, but it’s time to move on.                   

[Other examples of such tropes and ropes are: introducing the hero with his back to the camera and slowly moving on to show his face; the heroine being introduced by flinging her long hair to her back, and turning around; lastly, the villains, and sometimes ‘lesser mortals’, being shown emerging from a car, and the camera frame, starting at their shoes, slowly tilting upwards, to reveal their faces]. There could be many other ways of depicting dare-devil macho traits, and designing character entries into the script, with different, yet élan-ic ways.

In War 2, there are so many weapons used that you will have to think hard, and make a long list, in the no holds-barred clashes, because they are so many of them, including stalactites and stalagmites (ice cones seen in polar regions that have below zero climes), shaped like sharply pointed kulfi, several feet long. Scenes involving chases and encounters involving aeroplanics, helicoplanics, trainoplanics, boaticoplanics, caroplanics, etc., are where the major part of the Rs. 400 crore budget must have gone. But will these transport vehicles ply back the investments, preferably with appreciable gains, on the ‘exhibitors index’? If you follow my train of thought, I think the War 2 warship will have to navigate through troubled waters. I think War 2 might see its box-office performance end-up getting a RAW deal. That is the plane truth.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://youtu.be/mjBym9uKth4

P.S.: When assigning names to films and their characters, much attention should be paid to the subject, the narrative, the story, the plot, the theme. War 2 has not one second of war in it.                                                          Kabeer, which means ‘the great/big one’, was a 15th century Indian mystic poet philosopher, who lived in penury, and wrote in a poetry form known as dohas. These are couplets, in simple language, that drive home some home-truths and morals. He was a champion of tolerance among all religions, and his work survives till date. There is a Kabeervadi Panth sect that survives till today. Naming hyper-violent 21st century decimatorscharacters ‘Kabeer’ is doing no justice to a great, revered soul.  There is no dearth of suitable names for any part, so why not let Kabeer rest in peace?