No guts, no glory: Deepanjana Pal writes on the film War 2

There is no thrilling drama or cheerful insanity here. Just a screenplay with no highlights and a plot with no direction. Hrithik Roshan deserved so much better

The shadow of Abbas-Mustan looms large over War 2, as high-octane fights erupt across various modes of transport and characters hopscotch between being bad and good.

The fights are unimaginative, the twists are tired.

Despite its big stars and bigger budgets, there is not a moment in the latest addition to the YRF spyverse that rivals the unpredictable and cheerful insanity of the Abbas-Mustan films, though. (Remember the Audi that sailed out of and past a crashing plane in Race 2, all thanks to red parachutes attached to its four corners?).

Instead, director Ayan Mukerji’s action adventure is boring, and while the audience of War 2 does suffer, the unkindest cuts are reserved for those in the movie.

Kiara Advani’s Kavya Luthra is a female lead with so little to do, one imagines she ended up envying Naina (Vaani Kapoor) from War, who at least died halfway through. Colonel Sunil Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) has the opposite problem, killed within 30 minutes to make room for Kabir’s foxy new handler, Colonel Vikrant Kaul (Anil Kapoor).

At least Luthra is spared the idiocy of colleagues who miss a time bomb ticking away in a coffin, and doesn’t have to try to explain his team’s travel expenses (the action bounces around at least 10 locations).

The real tragic hero of War 2, however, is Hrithik Roshan, whose Kabir is deprived of both complexity and apparently sunscreen. For most of the film, his make-up appears to contain tints of orange or pink.

His entry in War 2, meanwhile, is heralded by a computer-generated wolf. Fake wolf and real man eyeball each other before the wolf is reduced to first a whimper and later a howl.

It’s not clear where Aditya Chopra was going with this story, or Shridhar Raghavan with the screenplay. Unlike its predecessor, War 2 is not a celebration of the excesses that characterise Bollywood at its pulpiest. The fights are unimaginative, the twists are tired and the writing, bloated. Roshan, who remains one of Hindi cinema’s more beautiful and under-utilised heroes, deserved better.

How well he could show off his range, I found myself thinking, with a project such as the new Chinese drama series A Dream Within a Dream (available on YouTube), in which an actress finds herself trapped in the world of a script. Li Yitong becomes determined to change her character’s arc. Starring opposite her is Liu Yuning as a dashing but cold-hearted actor who proves to be much more dynamic than the clichés that inform this archetype in Chinese drama.

A Dream Within a Dream is clever and witty in the way it subverts tropes of Chinese television writing to tell a story of love and romance, but also of chaos. Even minor characters get layers of complexity, such as the buffoonish crown prince Nan Rui (Chang Long), who exhibits grace in unexpected moments.

But it is Liu Yuning who steals the show. From hilarity to heartfelt emotion and elegant action choreography, the series gives him ample opportunity to showcase his range as an actor.

The show is a fantastic reminder that clever storytelling doesn’t have to come at the cost of the silliness that makes popular entertainment appealing to a broader demographic. Done right, as with A Dream Within a Dream, mainstream entertainment can keep everyone entertained. Done poorly, as in War 2, no one wins.

(To reach Deepanjana Pal with feedback, write to @dpanjana on Instagram. The views expressed are personal)