There is a fundamental but very important difference in how we consume food and films. You go in for the same mutton biryani from the same outlet every time because you like how it tastes. If, one day, the taste differs, you will be sorely disappointed, perhaps even making a note to never order from the same restaurant again.
How we react to cinema we like, however, is just the opposite. If you like a film but are presented with almost the same film in its follow-up/sequel, you will reject it. You can look for the same flavour (and perhaps even some familiarity), but you will not appreciate aCtrl-C+Ctrl-V exercise.
Raid 2 suffers from this affliction. It is not only a retread into Raid territory, it doesn’t serve its audience anything that we hadn’t watched in the first film. Seven years ago, director Rajkumar Gupta gave us Amay Patnaik, a sharp-thinking, quick-on-his-feet income tax officer. Honest to a fault and armed with dry humour, Patnaik’s run-in with powerful politician Tauji (a deliciously evil Saurabh Shukla) in what was billed as ‘the longest income-tax raid in history’, made for some immensely watchable moments, besides delivering the kind of subtle social commentary that Gupta is known for.
Raid 2 has Patnaik — played by Ajay Devgn — facing his 73rd transfer as he gets on to his 75th raid. I may have mixed up the numbers, but they are unimportant and interchangeable, just like most of Raid 2 is. This time around, Patnaik lands up at the doorstep of Dada Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh), an oxymoronically clean politician on the surface. But like we have seen earlier, skeletons — in this case, of course, moolah amounting to millions — start tumbling out of his closet, with Amay and Dada Bhai engaging in a battle of wits and words.
Raid was written by Ritesh Shah. With so much of the same old being gift-wrapped and presented in the new film, it is perplexing that Shah has had to lean on four other writers — Akshat Tiwari, Jaideep Yadav, Karan Vyas and director Gupta himself. The presence of so many pens perhaps explains the plodding 150-minute runtime, with Raid 2 taking interminably long to build a set-up — and that includes Patnaik and his ways — that we are anyway up to speed with.
What Gupta does in the second film, however, is resort to a grating, often bombastic, background score that doesn’t do his plot or players any favours. In fact, it takes much away from the DNA of the Raid franchise, with the first film relying on its quiet strength and Devgn’s intensity to deliver dividends. In that film, humour jostling with hostility made for a potent combination, with Shukla proving to be a worthy nemesis. That is crucially missing in the latest outing.
Raid 2 is also painfully dull. Devgn, who has built a career playing such roles — mostly subtle, sometimes of the ‘aata majhi satakli’ type — seems very listless here. Patnaik continues to punch above his weight, not allowing anything or anyone to get in his way, but Raid 2 very soon ends up as an exercise in drudgery. You even feel that Patnaik’s stoic face will break into a yawn every moment. Much like you sitting in that plex seat. By the time I came out, my nails had grown an inch at least.
The presence of Amit Sial’s Lallan Sudheer — Patnaik’s upstart subordinate from the first film — infuses some life into the proceedings, as does the entry of Yashpal Sharma as a lawyer. But such perky perks are few and far between. The presence of women in the film is obligatory. Supriya Pathak, playing Dada Bhai’s mother, gets some scope even within the limited confines of her character, but Vaani Kapoor — stepping into Ileana D’Cruz’s sari and sandals to play Patnaik’s wife — is around simply for tokenism. After Stree 2, Tamannaah Bhatia does another item number, but a largely forgettable one this time around.
‘Why fix something that ain’t broke’, goes an age-old saying. ‘Old wine in a new bottle goes another’. Raid 2 is a shining — and unfortunate — illustration of both
