Khuda Haafiz 2 begins with the traumatised spouse of a software program engineer struggling for normalcy. For individuals who have not seen the primary half, or have forgotten the goings-on, she had been engulfed in a flesh dealer pipeline in a fictional center jap nation, and he had launched into a mission impossible to rescue her.
No spoilers right here, it is all partly one, which had gone straight to a streamer when it got here out in 2020, in the midst of the lockdown. Within the sequel too, what passes for a plot is simply an excuse to hold a full-on Jammwal jamboree; Like the primary version, this one additionally goes full tilt on the high-octane motion, the rationale why this movie exists.
Khuda Haafiz 2 opens with Nargis (Shivaleeka Oberoi) in a deep funk, Sameer (Vidyut Jammwal) making an attempt very arduous to get her again on observe, and the arrival of a candy little lady lighting up their life. However the issues that may go improper achieve this with a vengeance: the little lady vanishes, as does the 15-year-old who’s together with her. A bunch of snarly teenage boys in a shifting van, the scared-out-of-their-wits ladies cowering of their corners, the digital camera monitoring from overhead: there isn’t a doubt in our minds that nothing good can come out of it. And it would not. The remainder of the movie focusses on Jammwal doing what he does finest: turning into an environment friendly, efficient battering ram, hooked up to a few set expressions– it is both a smile or a bulging of the eyes and furrowing of the brows– whether or not it’s in a jail yard in Lucknow, or in a villain’s hideout in Egypt.
Oberoi and Jammwal reprise their components, no shock there. The actual casting shock here’s a feminine don performed by Sheeba Chadhha, who likes her paan recent, her ladies submissive, and her milk uncooked, minus sugar. That is an attention-grabbing little flourish, and you want extra was achieved to make her menacing. For an clever actor like Chaddha, to tug off a Bollywood campy quantity with conviction is difficult, except she has been written higher. One change although, between her and Oberoi, comes near being whistle-worthy.
I loved Danish Hussain’s cameo, as a hardcore ‘quaidi‘ (prisoner) who’s on the aspect of the angels. Like Annu Kapoor within the first version, Hussain buys into the squelchy, ultra-violent core of this film, which like its earlier version, jumps into its gory set-pieces with relish, embracing its B film roots. There are parts when the bloodiness turns into extreme, identical to they’d within the first half: how a lot arterial blood is an excessive amount of arterial blood?
What is totally unconscionable is a scene when the digital camera swoops in sickeningly near the battered and torn physique of the little lady. A person with a conscience, anchor-reporter Ravi Kumar (Tailang, busy channelling his internal Ravish Kumar) tells his cameraman to cease taking pictures, and it is a scene which ought to get the viewers cheering. In all decency, the movie’s cinematographer ought to have, too. Additionally in pressing must be deep-sixed: Moharram scenes with these whips and lashes and bloody backs, and abattoirs-with-carcases turning right into a ‘kabristan‘, led by kohl-eyed, sword-carrying, bearded-skull-capped characters (Bhattacharya). Stereotypical, lazy writing which pulls down a number of the not-so-bad zippy components of the film, whose solely advantage is that it’s not let up tempo.
The climactic chase involving SUVs and gun-toting baddies takes place within the shadow of the Sphinx, and a number one man who appears to have internalized the mantra — see neck, will slice. However like within the first half, and the best way this one ends, which leaves us in little question that there will probably be a 3rd, nobody has bothered answering that query: how does a software program engineer flip into roaring Rambo? Does he have a secret life that we aren’t conscious of? Perhaps the third half will give us these solutions.
Khuda Haafiz Agni Pariksha film forged: Vidyut Jammwal, Shivaleeka Oberoi, Sheeba Chaddha, Danish Hussain, Rajesh Tailang, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
Khuda Haafiz Agni Pariksha film director: Faruk Kabir
Khuda Haafiz Agni Pariksha film ranking: 2 stars